Yesterday the far-right House Freedom Caucus called for an end to any discussions of raising the debt ceiling until the Senate passes its bill calling for extreme budget cuts. Today, former president Trump announced on his social media channel that “REPUBLICANS SHOULD NOT MAKE A DEAL ON THE DEBT CEILING UNLESS THEY GET EVERYTHING THEY WANT (Including the ‘kitchen sink’).” THAT’S THE WAY THE DEMOCRATS HAVE ALWAYS DEALT WITH US. DO NOT FOLD!!!”
I belong to the Nasty Woman organization in Indiana, Vigo County and Clay County! Thank goodness for them and Heather. They got me through the four years of hell we endured during tfg as president. We survived that....I pray we can continue to survive. I only have a few more years left...but my granddaughter has a life time to go....(I worry)!
I bet you are so bummed, Heather, that you can’t take that summer vacation to Russia this year! Actually I think that being banned is quite an honor and a badge of your influence and success in speaking the truth about world affairs.
OK, Sharon, can I get an honorary membership in the "Nasty Woman" organization?!? Sounds to me like the reverse Groucho Marx type of situation, i.e., I would gladly join that club were it to have me as a member!
God bless you, your granddaughter, and all the Nasty Distaff Hoosiers!
That’s where I was born and raised. Moved away after college, and I’ve never looked back. Even so, I continue to be surprised at how hard right the good folks from that area have gone — including family. I don’t understand it.
There was always the undercurrent of the far right, but I think common sense and religious values (knowing right from wrong) was enough to bring folks to the middle. But once Trump got into office and made it ok to publicly put voice to any dark thought or weird conspiracy theory, that was it.
Keep the faith that when all is said and done, folks like us will be on the right side of history.
Try this one: "неприятная женщина", or "мерзкая женщина", these (there are a couple more variants) via one of my good translation sites (not Google!). . .
I will alternate between that newly adapted T shirt, and the one that depicts Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, Ms. Omar, Ms. Pressley and Ms. Tlaib stating, "I support the Squad"!
You know, Trump had a letter from Nixon, praising his "talents", hanging in his office. Scary. My alma mater had to remove Nixon's picture from the Law Library because it kept getting trashed - shame on me, but I was proud of that, ha!
Nixon was a complex and difficult personality. He did some terrible things, like stealing the '68 election. But there were some shreds of decency in the man, and he went through some bad stuff which partially explains the bad he did, unlike Trump.
Nixon lost two brothers in childhood. He got up at some ungodly early hour as a kid to work in his father's store, but his father never gave him any emotional support. (My maternal grandfather was like that towards my mother, who emotionally disowned him at age 6.)
Trump has no redeeming features. He is an absolute piece of slag, and I wish he would either go to prison or kick the bucket. ASAP.
Of course, Nixon sometimes did tar his opponents. As a little kid, I'd heard how he'd tarred Rep. Helen Gahagan Douglass when they'd run for Senate in 1950.
Background info for this story: my parents were both trained economists. During the 1960 election, I had this friend Ralphie, whose maternal grandfather was a cofounder of Nordstrom's, the only one of which at tht time was in Seattle. Ralphie's mother was interior decorator to Seattle's elite, which included John Ehrlichman, later a close aide to Nixon. So, the only thing surprising about the political arguments we'd get into was the fact that we were having these arguments in second grade.
One day my mother was driving, with the two of us in the car. I probably remember this story not because I was the protagonist, but because my mother told it so many times. "You know Ralphie, you really shouldn't vote for Nixon," I told him, "Because he called that lady in California something like an economist."
My mother didn't laugh much, but she sure laughed when she told that story. She got such a kick out of it!
David Nixon rode the pumpkin papers a long way, before Watergate dashed him with scalding water and he melted (momentarily). Nixon was globally strategic and didn’t give a shit about meat-and-potato domestic issues. As founder of Environment Day, personally he was totally disinterested (until the oil leak by Santa Barbara).
I did not discern a Nixon ‘cult.’ A number of people snuggled up to Nixon’s presidential power—and he worked his butt off funding for Republicans 1960-1968, but when Watergate hit a 9-0 Supreme Court ruling, virtually no significant Republican stood by Nixon during the impeding impeachment trial in the Senate.
Sadly, there is a Trump cult what personally I find inexplicable. I certainly wouldn’t want him as a role model in a Sunday school class, (unless I wanted a portrait of Satan).
I lived in Yorba Linda so don’t feel bad. Do remember as a child when we would stop at the Nixon family restaurants on the way from LA to Brea. It as always a treat.
Do you mean Scandia Gardens, in a bid house on Beach Blvd in La Habra?The Milhouse family owned Seafare Inn on Whittier Blvd in Whittier. I went to school with 2 different sets of Nixon cousins.
No. This perhaps 1955or 56. The Nixon family had an outdoor restaurant on Whittier blvd(heading toward La Habra) on right hand side of street. Dirt with picnic tables and wonderful little apple pies. That was sold but they still had a regular one further down the street.
I was raised in Brea but my great uncle knew Nixon and a bunch of other “interesting “ people. Very active in the Navy League. Family dinners were something else . Kind of like congress after a few glasses of wine.
Rock on HCR. We should all wear t-shirts - I STAND WITH HCR. Men like Putin are so threatened by a smart, educated woman with a world view that their only choice is to ban them? Screw him and every other man like him. #iStandWithHCR #TheFutureIsFemale
My "favorite" one of these was getting dressed down by a sergeant for not finishing a report before I went home following graveyard shift (this was a common practice). As this was going on, my shift compadre came in, heard what was going on, and came up and stood next to me. The sergeant said "What are you doing here, Ed?" He replied "I'm two reports down from Monday, and did not finish my burglary report from last night, so I must be in trouble too." Nothing ever came of this, because the sarge shut up immediately. I found out years later that he (the sarge) had made it his mission to send two of the three female road deputies we had back to the jail (but not the pretty blond one.)
And love how this story highlights the importance of being someone willing to stand up for someone else. We all need to have each other’s back. That’s where courage gets super-charged!
I am reminded of the story in Denmark after the Nazis had occupied the country. The Nazis decreed that all Jews had to wear a prominent Star of David. The next morning the Danish king appeared wearing a Star of David.
I would be delighted to wear a HEATHER BANNED IN RUSSIA shirt.
I remember, after being point man in 1964 for a military rescue of 3,000 foreign hostages threatened with death by Congolese rebels, when an ambassador (formerly in Nigeria and non-French speaking) came up to me and said “Keith, we did it.’
Actually, as head of the Congo Working Group, he had sought to sabotage the rescue operation. I replied “Mr. Ambassador, you didn’t do a f++king thing.” I felt good and he was speechless, because he knew I spoke the truth.
Along these lines....wonder what would happen if Heather's several thousand followers "stood next to her" by adding all of our names to the list. In fact, if enough U.S. citizens signed on to the banned list it would ruin the cruise ship/ tourism industry in Russia. "Soft sanction"............
I assume you knew, Ally, even before your shift compadre came in that you were not afforded equal treatment over your "failure"? The ugly is that it was and in a lot of ways still is the status quo. Ugh!
Agreed. There are a lot of wonderful, kind and good men in the world. But there are also a lot of sexists who demean, grab, ignore and worse if all, rape. Trump is one of those.
I am leery of anything that sounds like a personality cult. I don't think something with her name or initials would do Heather any favors. She is capable of standing on her own, as she has amply demonstrated. I think that it is more that HCR stands with us. She props us up. In addition, there are many others who are involved with us in this quiet revolution.
I would, however, wear a t-shirt that says "We The People..." or "We're in this together". More inclusive, less clubbish, states what it is we stand for,
I agree. I want our leaders to be competent, honest, humble...and common. I want them to be fungible, so that when one retires, leaves, or is assassinated, another equally competent leader steps up right where their predecessor left off. I want each leader to continually encourage great subordinates, so that leaders can know that continuity of institutions is assured.
I also want genuine maple syrup on my waffle, and extra butter, please.
Dirk I find that your last wish is far easier to fulfill than your earlier fantasies. I retired as professor at age 80 after teaching 23 years. Whether or not I was competent or humble, at least I was honest. [Still bloviating 9 years later.]
Dirk, I'm with you all the way- even if sometimes they are aspirational, these are still legitimate things to expect and work for.
Lucky me: fresh butter that comes in 2# logs wrapped in parchment, and maple syrup from a farm just up the hills above me. I prefer pancakes. Think I'll make some with cranberries (in my freezer). I'd share but pancakes don't ship well. Where ever you are, I hope you have access to good butter and real maple syrup.
Annie I don’t consider standing tall with Heather or Mother Theresa a ‘personality cult.’ I considering it honoring someone who truly does good and whom I respect.
Acknowledge that. My point is how it would be interpreted. I don't want people to misunderstand what we are doing. And that is a concern: it has already been reworked that way in right wing circles. We already know that Heather is targeted by trolls, and I suspect we don't see the worst of them.
I was thinking along similar lines. You know you’re a formidable force of truth and reason when Putin bans you from Russia. Congratulations Heather! Even he knows how powerful your voice and influence is in preserving our democracy.
Thank you again, for being a constant, steady voice in our lives in this most uncertain & pivotal moment. You inspire me to keep working towards, ‘a more perfect Union’.
I don't find myself envious very often. But today I am. Wouldn't it be cool to be on the same "banned in Russia list" as Heather Cox Richardson, Barack Obama and...Stephen Colbert?!
As for the Republicons who dare to undermine the full faith and credit of the US, are they not aiding and abetting our enemies? Isn't there a word for that?
Many of you have probably read this substack from Thom Hartman. If not, dig in, fasten your seat belt and try to control your digestion.
I just ordered Thom's new book. We could make ourselves honorary members of that noble list via an online pledge or tee shirts with a slogan. Just sayin'
Just posted in another thread promoting "I stand with HCR" that I am leery of anything that sounds like a personality cult. I don't think something with her name or initials would do Heather any favors. She is capable of standing on her own, as she has amply demonstrated. I think that it is more that HCR stands with us. She props us up. In addition, there are many others who are involved with us in this quiet revolution.
I would happily wear a t-shirt that says "We The People..." or "We're in this together". More inclusive, less clubbish, states what it is we stand for.
I'm actually in search of another flag to fly to even out the three I already have: U.S. flag, Ukrainian flag, and Antigua flag (my husband's home country). I'd like it to be 3'x5', though.
Banned by Putin? Yes, Russia goes along with him, and technically it’s their government making the list. Words matter. World peace might be more of a possibility if we keep our doors/minds/hearts/words open to the resistors wherever they are?
The choice of words we put into the universe might help change a culture that sees an entire country as an enemy instead of the murdering tyrant that bullied his way to power?
I’m making an effort to change myself and putting words to it helps me, it’s just a thought and not my intention to direct anyone’s behavior. ❤️
President Biden needs to openly defy the Meltdown Squad, proclaim the debt ceiling unconstitutional, and that he will order our bills paid no matter how much they whine. Let the Melts tell SCOTUS how it's great to be a deadbeat while we get on with running this country.
You know, that is not simple hyperbole. Some of them, Jim Jordan, for example, participated to a degree in the Jan. 6 insurrection. And, anyone who would support another who wanted to overthrow the government of the United States has violated his/her oath of office and should be removed from office. We need to realize that we're actually at war.
Yes indeed Richard, this is modern warfare! The thought that one man can declare war on the entire world while we sit by helplessly, is patently absurd. Trump should be muzzled and put in a padded cell wearing a straightjacket. Insanity ad infinitum! Sedition is a most serious crime, and we'd best get out heads out of our rears and stop waiting fot The Fairy of Fairness to come along and save is!
The way I see it is that the repugnants are holding the USA hostage unless they get their way with their ridiculous demands which will hurt the country therefore they are going against the constitution and their oaths of office and that is treason ! Arrest them for treason !!
I need to understand. How is it that the party that only cares about corporate profits would even consider throwing the economy into the abyss? Are they that desperate about their pending losses that they are willing to cut off their nose to spite their face and risk default just to blame it on Biden? Wouldn't an easier path to attract voters be to address the will of the majority of Americans and allow abortion rights, gun control, freedom to read whatever we want, and butt out of our bedrooms??
Think of The Constitution as a toolbox in your home. In it are your everyday used tools. Also are the scarcely, if never used ones. Well, the 14th Amendment needs to be seen just as that! You don’t use a lawn mower when making electrical repairs.
Some of them are indeed part of insurrectionist block and I would love to see them indicted and at the very least, removed from office. Report from Oregon's senate....now up to 10 senators who, under measure 113, passed by 68 percent of the voters cannot run for reelection because they have 10 or more unexcused absences. They, of course, are planning to litigate this.
Just had a “funny” thought: removed from the House, they can join the Proud Boys, etc., but while they’re in Congress Jack Smith can keep an eye on them.
The very first thing that needs to happen is to remove them from office. They're seditionists, for heavens sake. Their intent is to bring down the government. Are we so blind that we can't see the obvious?
I do not see anything in Michael's post that suggests that was what MIchael meant. I agree with him. Some of the preceding comments were reckless: the very kind of thing we criticize the right-wing extremists for saying.
It maybe reckless to say “round them up” as they are not cattle though they hardly appear human to some of us, but it does seem our beautiful democratic principle of equal justice under the law is struggling to hold traitors to our constitution accountable for their crimes. So there is nothing “silly” about it! And it seems that the finger you’re pointing at TC in saying he sounds like a Russian thug leaves three of your own fingers pointing back at you.
It appeared to me that Michael was responding to JohnT. It's one thing to round up and arrest people where there is evidence that they have broken the law, as TC wrote (in his brusque style). The next step is court and legal process. It's another thing to suggest they should simply be rounded up and put in prison to rot for life.
I agree with Michael that at times we are entirely too cavalier in some of the judgments we make that seem to toss Constitutionally guaranteed freedoms and processes for certain groups of people we have already passed judgement on. In that framework, Michael is quite correct that it makes some of us sound like vindictive thugs.
As he said, think about it. Is this the kind of people we want to be?
Oh, TC, I wish you hadn't written this. All those insults and tropes over a silly misunderstanding about who was replying to who(m). It's not even clear who it is YOU are responding to, but either way, sometimes it's just a good idea to just skip over and move on, let the little things go by.
Look at the executioners in this painting. Aren't they also, in a very real sense, killing themselves? Aren't they viewed by history as monsters, thugs? Just like the Nazis -- sure they killed millions of people, but didn't they also kill themselves, merely by giving everyone else great motivation to do it for them? Even over 80 years later, nothing is too horrible to happen to a German Nazi, just look at the new movie "Sisu." WWII wasn't merely a war of German aggression, it was a German mass suicide, a national equivalent of "suicide by cop."
I don't want to persecute or execute anyone, because I don't want to persecute and execute myself, or give someone else a good reason to do so.
Perhaps President Biden will continue to negotiate in good faith right up until the end as the adult in the room, giving the Republican House every opportunity to do the right thing in full display for the American people. And then at the last minute use the Fourteenth Amendment only as a last resort. Jamie Raskin’s argument for using it seems quite valid and coming from a Constitutional scholar adds quite a bit of weight to his argument.
I never thought of it this way quite before. (Yes I have long thought they are toddlers. especially trump and MTG). One way to deal with a problem toddler is to strap them in their high chair, hold their nose shut and spoon feed them. Maybe not an approved method today, I am an old fart, but that worked when we were in our twenties.
Agree! Biden is not going to let this go over the cliff. He's letting them play out their little game of chicken to show the American people who they really are. They're acting tough (all the while knowing Biden won't let default happen.) Their voters will give these bullies the punch in the nose they so rightly deserve at reelection time.
I hope that's his game plan, Bruce. But the time to lance the GOP boil is now--he can use this crisis to leapfrog the entire "how high should we raise the debt ceiling?" and land on "debt ceiling? What debt ceiling? Fuck a bunch of debt ceiling, I don't recognize it as constitutional and I refuse to obey it. Treasury, keep sending those checks to Grandma."
That approach makes him a Navy SEAL hunting terrorists, not a nice guy negotiating with lunatics, and Americans do love their SEALs. And in this rare instance, it's justified: the terrorists are threatening our economy and Biden needs to take them out for good. He can do that on live TV and make himself look strong, which gives him momentum for 2024.
Could not agree more. The world is ready to see the backbone we all desperately want to believe you have Mr. President. Don't play chicken anymore with these terrorists. Just get it done so it's settled. Prove that you won't stand for this recklessness, not that you can outlast them until they (maybe) cave. I understand the temptation, but it's a bad idea. With all due respect, Sir. Pick which aftermath is more damaging to the nation and the world. The choice should be clear.
I totally agree. Tfg would have done it a long time ago. Bully up Mr. President. These people are not the majority. You tried, you gave them a chance. They are mostly criminals led by the most immoral blathering idiot ever to desecrate the White House.
I totally agree.Biden should not give an inch to these irresponsible thugs.Besides, any concessions that he would give them would be used by them as ammunition against him and the entire Democratic Party.
When my son wanted to argue for a later curfew, every time he would name a later time, I backed his old curfew up by a half hour. After some back and forth, he decided his original curfew was fine. Possible strategy for dealing with the immature idiots. Imagine what the R's would do if the shoe were on the other foot?
In the country (and probably the world), huge relief and life goes on. In Congress, a huge tantrum, lawsuits, the Supreme Court, whose reaction cannot be known from where I am, but my guess is they will do anything to avoid being caught up in this, considering the bind they have finally realized they are in. But who knows? I think Biden would prevail, but there would sure be a lot of noise for a while.
Best to ignore the noise, keep beady eyes on the SC, and wait it out while we keep working on raising awareness (as opposed to calling names and being hoity-toity indignant). I pretty much hope Biden goes there, because I think that it very well could result in returning some balance to our national government in the long term, and maybe even the short term.
In the debt ceiling crisis, the GOP is bin Laden with a new set of airplanes. Mr. Biden needs to be the Navy SEAL who stops them before the planes hit us again.
Agreed that this is getting very worrisome, because that wing of the GOP is insane and would cheerfully see our economy collapse in order to "own the libz." I think Biden needs to go live on prime time and shove the 14th Amendment down their throats. Time for nice is over.
I don't think that "this is getting very worrisome." It got to that point a long time ago, during the Obama presidency and even before when Newt Gingrich began the war on polite political discourse. We now have these white Christian nationalists who want power and not necessarily through the democratic process - one person, one vote, majority rule.
Agreed in general, Richard, but I was referring only to the debt ceiling crisis. This cancer started with Reagan, and Trumpism is its metastasized Stage 4.
Thx for the Politico article. I'm tempted to go off on the reluctance to have the Exec branch simply make clear ASAP that it will continue to borrow to have the funds to spend as the Legislative branch has appropriated them according to a budget the Exec has signed into law, and to honor all outstanding debt, notwithstanding the unconstitutional "ceiling." That reluctance seems foolish to me; the validity of the debt so incurred, as the saying goes, "shall not be questioned" -- a principle whose recognition I would expect to greatly improve our credit rating and interest rate, whereas abiding by that "ceiling" in the presence of a bloc in Cong who are totally willing to blow it all up is already bumping up the interest rate the US has to pay. (I'd love to see a quantification of the increase in the interest rate we're having to pay to service that debt because of this attempted extortion.). But I haven't read much and it's not the sort of thing on which I should draw an opinion from the air. Anyone have links to knowledgeable thoughts on the subject? Dr R?
Here's another Politico article published yesterday that has discussion from various perspectives about the use of the amendment, and how that might work. Or not. Still on the table, though.
"Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is against invoking the 14th Amendment and said, “Unconstitutionally acting without Congress [is] not an option.”"
How is it unconstitutional to invoke a clearly stated provision in the U.S. Constitution? Similar question posed to Janet Yellen's statement that it would be "legally questionable".
“So if you want to do something more than just talk about this, you can call or write to the following Republicans urging them to sign the petition when it comes up:”⬇️⬇️⬇️
One thing that won't happen is all 218 Republicans voting for a debt-limit / spending-cut package. Their "Limit, Save, Grow" bill only passed because moderates were persuaded that it would never become law. But the fact is moderates won't support all the cuts MAGA demands, and MAGA won't agree to drop them. Therefore, whatever emerges will necessarily be passed with a bipartisan majority.
Secondly, the negotiations taking place are not about the debt limit bill. They are about the budget. The idea is to reach a budget agreement now, which would also avoid a government shutdown in the Fall. But whatever cuts are agreed to will not be directly tied to the debt bill.
How do I know? President Biden was very explicit on Wednesday morning before leaving for Japan: "To be clear, this negotiation is about the outlines of what the budget will look like, not about whether or not we're going to, in fact, pay our debts."
Kevin McCarthy will probably stand with MAGA, since he promised them in exchange for their votes making him Speaker back in January. That means the discharge petition is the most likely vehicle for resolving the "crisis" he created and is solely responsible for.
Democrats are united in supporting the discharge petition, meaning only 5 or 6 Republican votes will be needed to bring a bill to the floor and pass it. So if you want to do something more than just talk about this, you can call or write to the following Republicans urging them to sign the petition when it comes up:
John Curtis (UT-3), Ashley Hinson (IA-2), Brian Fitzpatrick (PA-1), David Joyce (OH 14), Victoria Spartz (IN-5), Don Bacon (NE-2), Mike Gallagher (WI-8), Andrew Garbarino (NY-2), Nancy Mace (SC-1), Dan Newhouse (WA-4), and David Valadao (CA-22)
Just scroll down past the parts about our network's effort to remove and replace Speaker McCarthy, and you'll find all the info you need, including short bios of each.
If this is the case why are we encouraging panic in the world by allowing countries to believe we might default on our debts? That seems extremely dangerous if we could have fixed this by now.
The right wing extremists in Congress love the feeling of power it gives them. And it is not "us" doing the panic mongering. It is the right wing media. Panic=clicks=money=influence.
Well this was enlightening. We still have two Dem holdouts (one of is my Rep.! 😡😡)on that petition and this viewpoint from Vox adds a whole lot of history and why if it happens it will be a last ditch effort.
It’s an effing mess and these insurrectionists and Putinistas have got to GET the H out of our Congress!!
I find petitioning worse than useless, so, no thanks. The only thing that kinda works is calling the local office of your congressperson and complaining. Phone calls, they take seriously. Petitions, postcards, written letters, those all go to an offsite sorting station to check for anthrax, then shredded. Pols never see those things.
Their phone numbers are all in the contact info that she posted. I may well be have misunderstood, but I read it as the “petition” Kathy is referring to, is the “discharge petition” the Dems will present as a last ditch effort. I just posted a Vox article that lays it out. I had read about it months ago but then it go lost in all the other 💩💩💩 we’ve been wading thru.
Thanks for clarifying this, Christy. There are so many mounds of elephant poo to wade through I'm surprised we haven't drowned :-) Thanks for listing he phone numbers of the congresscritters; that's the only thing to which pols pay any attention, the number of constituents who call the home office and lodge their views.
Thank you Kathy. It feels so awful not to do anything. I know they don't pay attention to anyone out of district if you connect, but at least it let's them know we are watching carefully and will keep hounding their phone lines, emails and taking action!
Raising the debt ceiling has always been a done deal. This should not be an issue and Biden was right not to negotiate and throwing the nut jobs a bone only emboldens them. Biden always wants to be bipartisan, and in the past that was doable, but not with these crazies.
Absolutely. Bipartisan works only if partisans are reasonable. These particular Republicans are terrorists, not lawmakers, and they need not horsetrading, but horsewhipping. I'm ready for Mr. Biden to leap beyond "raise the debt ceiling" into "end the debt ceiling circus by making it unconstitutional," and he can do that only by exercising the raw political power that comes with the office.
Why are we at this point? Those nuts in the House want to destroy everything they can. They are a minority that thinks they have the power to destroy. Biden will not let them.
I hope you're right, Harvey, but I don't see any signs of him going medieval on their ass. Biden is a good president, but he's born of the Senate, so negotiating, dealmaking, and horsetrading, not raw power, is in his bones.
But terrorists respond only to power, not reason. It's time for him to declare the debt ceiling law unconstitutional, order the Treasury to keep paying our bills, let the MAGAs scream like scalded roaches, bait them into suing, and throw the whole mess at SCOTUS. I believe the Supremes will rule the debt ceiling unconstitutional because (a) it is, and (b) Roberts will not allow the Second Great Depression to stain his legacy. Problem Solved.
Biden looks strong and in-charge, and that's good for 2024.
Excellent comment. Using the debt ceiling as a weapon is like using a bomb to get into your own home. Not paying bills for stuff you already bought is what dead beats do. How we tolerate such stupid childish, attention grabbing, narcissist, small minded nut jobs anywhere near seats of power is beyond us.
And he needs to do it in a nationally televised speech that clearly explains (with bullet points/charts) the issue. We desperately need a major marketing and educational effort for reasonable people who haven’t been paying attention.
Yes. Absolutely this. It needs to be second-grade-simple, too, like "Fake News!" or "MAGA good, libs evil." Trumpists are great at generating simple but devastating attack points, and we need to do it on that. "Republicans want your grandmother to die. I won't let them."
HCR shares the thought of imperialist Vampire Liberals, warning that the congressional debt ceiling crisis "will hurt the power of the dollar, whose domination of the international monetary system has brought the U.S. extraordinary advantages."
Yes indeed, as comfortable American Vampire Liberals and their Almighty Dollar have benefitted from the most far-reaching genocide in history. Quoting from the resignation letter of senior IMF official Davison Budhoo:
"To me resignation is a priceless liberation, for with it I have taken the first big step to that place where I may hope to wash my hands of what in my mind’s eye is the blood of millions of poor and starving peoples. ...The blood is so much, you know, it runs in rivers....
"The charges that I make touch at the very heart of western society and western morality and post-war inter-governmental institutionalism that have degenerated into fake and sham under the pretext of establishingand maintaining international economic order and global efficiency....
"Will the world be content merely to brand our institution as among the most insidious enemies of humankind? Will our fellowmen condemn us thus and let the matter rest? Or will the heirs of those whom we have dismembered in our own peculiar Holocaust clamor for another Nuremberg?
"I don’t mind telling you that this matter has haunted me; it has haunted me particularly over the past five years. It has haunted me because I know that if I am tried I will be found guilty, very guilty, without extenuating circumstance...."
Why are you blaming only liberals for this? Conservatives have their hands in the money pot as much as anybody else. As for Davison Budhoo and "the blood is so much, you know, it runs in rivers," he needs to switch to decaf. The last thing this debt crisis needs is melodrama.
Why do you pretend that I only "blame liberals"? Nice job of dishonest misdirection.
And your dismissal of Davison Budhoo without any discussion whatsoever of his 100-page resignation letter qualifies you as yet another IMF Holocaust denier.
Gee, could it be your use of "Imperialist Vampire Liberals" with no mention whatsoever of conservatives who gleefully participate in IMF?
I have no love for the IMF, as it has caused immense harm across the planet. But his letter is so full of tortured anguish as to be soap opera---and comparing it to the Holocaust was sick.
...said the depraved IMF Holocaust denier. The IMF Holocaust, going far beyond the smaller Nazi Holocaust, was/is responsible for the deaths of tens of millions of people, especially starving dark-skinned babies, people whom elitist Vampire Liberals don't care about.
Agreed. You don’t negotiate with self proclaimed, gun toting, truth flouting, rapturous nihilists who have already shown they don’t care about democracy, the health of the planet, the health of the American people, the vote, equal protection under the law, or science. They care about power. It’s very Tolkien.
I moved 30% of my retirement out of stocks and into money market type funds. Anyone else?
PS - sorry for the Putin shout out HCR. We are living in the second Cold War, and this time we have many traitors amongst us. Thank you for your service.
The GOP, should be careful about what they wish for. Default could bring incredible devastation to themselves, rather than the victory against good democratic government, they strive for. Then , the rest of us will have to clean up the mess the extremists have left us. Fortunately , Joe Biden is good at fixing what they have broken. All this can be avoided by Biden going for the nuclear option. I think he will. There is no retreat from the other side, obviously, so why not?
Agreed. Trump, not the Democrats, got the blame for the last government shutdown, so that backfired on the GOP. A default that brings the Second Great Depression will break the GOP like a dried-out tree branch ... but who wants to go through that nightmare?
Time for Joe to drop The Bomb. There is no downside and lots of upside, so he should do it on my birthday just because I'd like that as a present :-)
Yes, I understand. I agree. The fragility of our beloved democracy has never been this apparent in my 75 years of life. I find myself being grateful that I’m old and don’t have any children. Sad, isn’t it?
I'm honestly not scared, because ultimately, I believe the Supreme Court will rule the debt ceiling law unconstitutional and that ends this hostage-taking forever. This is a genuine crisis, as opposed to the fake media crises we see every week, and so SCOTUS will agree to hear the case directly and will rule in less than a week. But there is no case on which to rule unless the president goads the GOP into filing suit--so he needs to declare right now that he will ignore the debt law and order the Treasury to keep paying the bills.
Thanks, Cheryl. All we can hope is that Road Runner Joe is ready to drop an Acme safe on Coyote Republicans' head, but is keeping that to himself till he springs it.
It’s ludicrous that media is framing this as “congress needs to do their jobs” rather than “republicans are promising to damage the United States economy and defund critical infrastructure no matter what compromises democrats accept.” Their negotiations should be made public.
I agree with you, Johanna. Some of the news coverage is appalling, including on NPR. "Reporters" reduce the issue to a grade school playground fight and often appear to blame Biden more than the GOP and its extremist traitors.
Some lines should never be crossed; period. Big lies, torture, threatening assault to the common weal being among them. What Joseph Welch of the McCarthy reckoning called "decency". We seem to be losing sight of that, and yet it can make all the difference in the world.
I hope it's not forever, and in any era a lot of different stuff was happening. But I think that as a society we are wise to give points for good faith. Also for honesty. Alexander Vindman must have known he was wading into a nest of vipers when he whistle-blew on Trump. He still deserves more credit than he got, as MAGAs gleefully celebrate their homicidal "Brandon". Brooksley Born got to say "I told you so" when the subprime Ponzi scheme collapsed into the Great Recession, but she got shafted by more than dastardly Republicans, and still should be a far more visible as a role model. Creeps like Trump and MTG manage to hog the spotlight, but what of those who rendered great service to the cause of "liberty and justice for all", especially courageously and at personal cost?
Republicans are attempting work their will not though debate and merit, but by racketeering protocol, threatening to kneecap the country should their demands be refused. Some years ago I read of a rejected boyfriend who dangled a baby out of an upper story window, threatening to drop the child if the mother left him. Ethically this is related thinking, not as individually dire, yet threatening harm to many on a vastly larger scale.
And we know from past performances, the demands and the threats will only worsen if the manage to get away with it. Current Republicans are patently unfit for the responsibilities with which they have been entrusted.
That last sentence is very accurate in your post, JL Graham. They are totally unfit with anything relating to their responsibilities. It appears to me the only thing they would be fit for is cleaning out cesspools. They most likely couldn't even do that. Personally, i am disgusted and appalled that adults. or supposedly adults can act like the spoiled brats that don't get their way. The whole world is watching this too and wondering what the heck is going on and wondering how this is going to affect them.
Hi everybody, first comment here after “lurking” for over a year. I’m a Dutch guy living in Germany, and the Letters by Prof. Cox Richardson have become my main source of news of America. Journalism the way she does it is rare these days.
I’m watching the debt ceiling crisis with disbelief and in agony. It’s unbelievable that the Republicans would crash the US economy, and collapse the world economy with it, but sure as hell they’re going to do it -because they WANT it. They want the ensuing carnage and chaos, heck, they’re probably already speculating on a dropping dollar, a rising yuan and exploding food prices. But most importantly: they will “own the libs”! Whatever bad happens, they and the American media will pin it on Biden - so yes, they got a “winning hand”. Now, slowly, I start to wonder… What did Putin promise them in return for destroying the world’s largest democracy?
P.S. Professor, you are famous! You should be proud to be on Putin’s little list :)
I am not so sure about a 'winning hand'. Even my more conservative acquaintances are finally reluctantly withdrawing from their fascination with Trump. He is at last getting too old and decrepit and incompetent and corrupt, even for them. They had winced at his more outrageous statements, but happily put up with him because he was a winner and when he attacked it wasn't against them, it was against the 'others' they hated. But now they seem a little bit less tolerant of his nonsense and the continual messes and drama he causes. Naturally, they insisted on voting for Trump because "this system needs to be blown up, and he's the man to do it..." and they are still virulently anti-government and convinced they are superior beings who were born to dictate what everyone else does. Most of them are Christian evangelist or Catholics who want taxpayers to pay for their religious schools. They are on the hunt for another authoritarian wannabe Trumper, such as De Santis, someone they think they can control (that's what scares me). However, even these folks are not particularly thrilled with McCarthy's MAGA driven attempts to sabotage our economy. They are wealthy enough to care about hanging onto their cash, but not so wealthy that their savings wouldn't take a massive hit from this cynical blackmail of America and affect their quality of life--maybe 2%ers, not 1%ers. They know MAGA is playing with fire. They mutter about "both parties" destroying our culture--for the first time they don't explicitly blame Democrats (the 'other') for everything. They're a little bit pissed about getting put in this corner, just enough to start kicking back. What they fail to understand is they lost control of their monsters long ago. Deplorables got in the driver's seat, and now we are all going for a bumpy ride none of us (or most of us) don't want. If these conservatives want to get off, they will need us to help them stop the runaway train. I myself hope the 14th Amendment is lowered like a boom. It should have been used long ago, to stop these stupid games of Chicken with our economy. Our bought-off corrupt SCOTUS is going to do what SCOTUS is wont to do in deciding this Constitutional crisis, but the country isn't going to be fooled about whose fault it is, regardless of their decision--and I think SCOTUS knows that and might blink. And I don't think the Republicans will be able to pretend this is Biden's fault, no matter how much the media bleats.
They will blame Biden for… well, whatever. A 90-year-old crone at my assisted living facility screeched at me about how she hates Joe Biden for putting all the guns on the streets.
Yes, what did Putin promise "his" Republicans (or threaten them with) in his war against the United States. No better way to destroy an enemy than to buy off its soldiers.
Other than oil in the ground, which is looking to become less and less profitable to get out of the ground, what does Putin even have that any mentally healthy person could want? It appears they all have a pathological need for approval from an authoritarian “father-figure”.
Then there's the push to build (at taxpayer expense, to the benefit of private enterprise) a new rail line to carry massive quantities of crude oil from Utah's Uinta Basin oil fields to refineries on the Gulf coast, for export. Parts of the line would run very close to upper reaches of the Colorado River so, in addition to adding the climate impacts of greater drilling in the Basin and greater amounts of oil exported to other parts of the world, would add the potential for serious impacts on river water that everyone downstream depends on in the event of one or more derailments. Construction of the rail line alone would have climate & ecological impacts in an unstable area. https://www.hcn.org/articles/south-oil-utahs-proposed-crude-oil-railway-could-see-an-accident-every-year
I agree with you, Christy! It sure looks like it. Maybe they are completely incapable of thinking for themselves, so they need someone to tell them what to think and what to do. Maybe some of them even have a ‘daddy kink’, who knows…
HCR shares the thought of imperialist Vampire Liberals, warning that the congressional debt ceiling crisis "will hurt the power of the dollar, whose domination of the international monetary system has brought the U.S. extraordinary advantages."
Yes indeed, as comfortable American Vampire Liberals and their Almighty Dollar have benefitted from the most far-reaching genocide in history. Quoting from the resignation letter of senior IMF official Davison Budhoo:
"To me resignation is a priceless liberation, for with it I have taken the first big step to that place where I may hope to wash my hands of what in my mind’s eye is the blood of millions of poor and starving peoples. ...The blood is so much, you know, it runs in rivers....
"The charges that I make touch at the very heart of western society and western morality and post-war inter-governmental institutionalism that have degenerated into fake and sham under the pretext of establishingand maintaining international economic order and global efficiency....
"Will the world be content merely to brand our institution as among the most insidious enemies of humankind? Will our fellowmen condemn us thus and let the matter rest? Or will the heirs of those whom we have dismembered in our own peculiar Holocaust clamor for another Nuremberg?
"I don’t mind telling you that this matter has haunted me; it has haunted me particularly over the past five years. It has haunted me because I know that if I am tried I will be found guilty, very guilty, without extenuating circumstance...."
Some neo-fascists like to flavor their love of Ukraine's oppressive right-wing thug regime with anti-Russian bigotry.
The IMF (with voting domination by NATO countries, including the Netherlands) extracted a pledge from Ukraine's President Poroshenko to re-conquer the Donbass (to help service the loan from back in 2014 with tevenue from Donbass heavy industry). Zelensky swore to keep that pledge, and moved to invade, while NATO promised endless weapons as long as Ukraine delivered pounds of bloody flesh. And Vampire Liberals are all right with that.
The IMF is part of the United Nations, but it is based in Washington, DC. For decades the U.S. had an absolute dictator vote at the IMF, but that has changed somewhat.
While doing the bidding of the IMF (re-igniting the "frozen" civil war in the Donbass), Zelensky was also capitulating to the neo-Nazis and reneging on his campaign promise to bring peace to the Donbass.
Ukraine's far-right, thuggish police state has suppressed all the opposition political parties and seized their TV stations. Ukraine's Interior Ministry, in charge of the police, was run from 2014 to 2021 by neo-Nazi kingpin Arsen Avakov.
I am joining the other early commenters in sending HUGE CONGRATULATIONS for making it onto Putin's shit list. This confirms exactly how important your work truly is. Keep shining the light of Democracy and know that your readers are ALL behind you!!
HCR shares the thought of imperialist Vampire Liberals, warning that the congressional debt ceiling crisis "will hurt the power of the dollar, whose domination of the international monetary system has brought the U.S. extraordinary advantages."
Yes indeed, as comfortable American Vampire Liberals and their Almighty Dollar have benefitted from the most far-reaching genocide in history. Quoting from the resignation letter of senior IMF official Davison Budhoo:
"To me resignation is a priceless liberation, for with it I have taken the first big step to that place where I may hope to wash my hands of what in my mind’s eye is the blood of millions of poor and starving peoples. ...The blood is so much, you know, it runs in rivers....
"The charges that I make touch at the very heart of western society and western morality and post-war inter-governmental institutionalism that have degenerated into fake and sham under the pretext of establishingand maintaining international economic order and global efficiency....
"Will the world be content merely to brand our institution as among the most insidious enemies of humankind? Will our fellowmen condemn us thus and let the matter rest? Or will the heirs of those whom we have dismembered in our own peculiar Holocaust clamor for another Nuremberg?
"I don’t mind telling you that this matter has haunted me; it has haunted me particularly over the past five years. It has haunted me because I know that if I am tried I will be found guilty, very guilty, without extenuating circumstance...."
I remember when Republicans loved democracy and our country. Compromise was always part of politics. Too many of today’s so-called Republicans seem to just want to tear down and win, but don’t care what this means for our world standing and future. Are they willing to destroy our economy and the finances of most Americans in order to blame Biden so they can win elections? I hate to think that’s true, but the sad preponderance of evidence seems to point that direction.
Yes. Of so many within, so many around everywhere through time, and so much more. We know so little of the mystery we call the universe. We're trying but we have just begun. I hope we're going to have a chance to continue. And yes the universe is physical, mathematical and spiritual. And all of it is contained for us poor creatures in each moment of awareness and gratitude.
It's not that they want to win elections: They simply do not understand that cooperation is more than gobbling the entire pie, which only makes one sick.
Not only is it time to invoke the 14th Amendment, it's also time to bring out the treason statute and have a predawn roundup of 50 House Republicans, starting with Dumbfuckingokiefornian McCarthy and his "leadership" crew of traitors, the Taliban 20, and the rest of the Fwee-cumb Kawkuss, and stuff them in the DC jail on charges of Treason. They have in fact declared war on the United States.
Where oh where are those FEMA camps for imprisoning the far right when we really need them?
Check your facts before casually trashing my home state, TC. According to Wikipedia, McCarthy is a 4th generation Dumbfuckingcalifornian of Irish descent with no ties of any kind to Oklahoma. There certainly are plenty of stupid right-wingers living here but also many kind and caring people who don't deserve this mean-spirited and lazy characterization.
Bakersfield, CA is known as the Oklahoma of California, and for good reason. There may be no ties of heritage to Oklahoma by the squeaker of the house, but that area was settled by people fleeing the dust bowl who hailed from Oklahoma.
Although I generally enjoy your comments, I think you are way off base here. Having lived in both Oklahoma and California, I'm well aware of the history of the 1930s. And I also understand that Bakersfield is a right-wing stronghold. No offense, but you seem to be missing the point that "Dumbfuckingokiefornian" is a slur just like the N-word and the C-word. Maybe it's OK with some people to use the O-word but it doesn't make it any less condescending and insulting. Back in the day Okies were regarded as subhuman troglodytes due to their reduced circumstances and apparently that prejudice still exists in some quarters. But casting slurs based on ethnicity/geography isn't going to get us to that more perfect union, not by a long shot.
My good friend from Oklahoma (who still has family in Norman) is the one who relayed that information regarding some of the dust bowl migration. I wasn’t passing judge on the slur, simply explaining how “Okie” comes to be a part of it.
My in-laws were from Oklahoma. Finer people never lived, but rats abound in every state. Texas has a fair share, but the big rats rule…. True in many places.
So now we're just going to turn into an authoritarian state that dispenses with whoever we decide is a threat? Sort of like the way we put Indigenous people in concentration camps, and the Japanese in remote communities made of shacks? Arrested people in the middle east just because they "looked suspicious" and stuck them for life in Guatanamo? Like the way we round up young black people but not young white people for simple infractions, because the black kids might be dangerous but the white ones are just blowing off steam? Who gets to make these decisions? And by what means? Stop it, TC. You are part of the problem.
"Their attack on the economy is more than that, though: it is an attack on the nation’s global standing."
I feel like my head will explode in disbelief and horror, that the Rethugs are willing to SINK THE SHIP we are all sailing on, including themselves, just to spite President Biden and "own the libs."
HCR shares the thought of imperialist Vampire Liberals, warning that the congressional debt ceiling crisis "will hurt the power of the dollar, whose domination of the international monetary system has brought the U.S. extraordinary advantages."
Yes indeed, as comfortable American Vampire Liberals and their Almighty Dollar have benefitted from the most far-reaching genocide in history. Quoting from the resignation letter of senior IMF official Davison Budhoo:
"To me resignation is a priceless liberation, for with it I have taken the first big step to that place where I may hope to wash my hands of what in my mind’s eye is the blood of millions of poor and starving peoples. ...The blood is so much, you know, it runs in rivers....
"The charges that I make touch at the very heart of western society and western morality and post-war inter-governmental institutionalism that have degenerated into fake and sham under the pretext of establishingand maintaining international economic order and global efficiency....
"Will the world be content merely to brand our institution as among the most insidious enemies of humankind? Will our fellowmen condemn us thus and let the matter rest? Or will the heirs of those whom we have dismembered in our own peculiar Holocaust clamor for another Nuremberg?
"I don’t mind telling you that this matter has haunted me; it has haunted me particularly over the past five years. It has haunted me because I know that if I am tried I will be found guilty, very guilty, without extenuating circumstance...."
The debt ceiling imbroglio possibly resulting in a vastly weakened US so plays into the goals of both Putin and Xi Jinping that it is hard to believe either one or both do not have a hand in in it. Certainly Putin has done all he can tp upset the US political apple cart especially since he got his hooks into the perfect stooge; Donald Trump. He has a potential team of stooges in the House MAGA caucus. A master manipulator like Putin would have an easy time with those dopes.
It seems outlandish, but it's one way Republican intransigence on the debt limit/default makes any sense at all.
Whatever the motivation, it's still treason every day House Republicans resisit a clean debt limit bill.
Not outlandish at all. I've come to the same conclusion myself. I believe we're already at war, with China and Russia combined. Exactly in the way you described. Trump will do anything to rise higher on the tower of the ultra wealthy and powerful. They'd have to be stupid not to see and try to seize this opportunity. I also believe the war on Ukraine is really a war on the USA first and foremost, because knocking us down makes the rest of the democracies easy pickins. These extreme Maga politicians aren't really Americans I mean that figuratively and possibly literally. They're part of a new world order in the making. War of attrition. Anyone watch the Caspian Report? Russia is playing the long game with USA. China is probably helping finance it. How's that for outlandish?
Ralph, why invoke our enemies when even our friends (Churchill?) recognized during an actual war (WWII) that "Americans can always be trusted to do the right thing...after all other possibilities have been exhausted"?
HCR shares the thought of imperialist Vampire Liberals, warning that the congressional debt ceiling crisis "will hurt the power of the dollar, whose domination of the international monetary system has brought the U.S. extraordinary advantages."
Yes indeed, as comfortable American Vampire Liberals and their Almighty Dollar have benefitted from the most far-reaching genocide in history. Quoting from the resignation letter of senior IMF official Davison Budhoo:
"To me resignation is a priceless liberation, for with it I have taken the first big step to that place where I may hope to wash my hands of what in my mind’s eye is the blood of millions of poor and starving peoples. ...The blood is so much, you know, it runs in rivers....
"The charges that I make touch at the very heart of western society and western morality and post-war inter-governmental institutionalism that have degenerated into fake and sham under the pretext of establishingand maintaining international economic order and global efficiency....
"Will the world be content merely to brand our institution as among the most insidious enemies of humankind? Will our fellowmen condemn us thus and let the matter rest? Or will the heirs of those whom we have dismembered in our own peculiar Holocaust clamor for another Nuremberg?
"I don’t mind telling you that this matter has haunted me; it has haunted me particularly over the past five years. It has haunted me because I know that if I am tried I will be found guilty, very guilty, without extenuating circumstance...."
Comrade Putin tipped his hand that he finds HCR's letters worthy of his attention. Don't we all. Pity he couldn't find someone with better command of English to plant a comment.
The IMF (with voting domination by NATO countries) extracted a pledge from Ukraine's President Poroshenko to re-conquer the Donbass (to help service the loan from back in 2014 with revenue from Donbass heavy industry). Zelensky swore to keep that pledge, and moved to invade, while NATO promised endless weapons as long as Ukraine delivered pounds of bloody flesh. And Vampire Liberals are all right with that.
The IMF is part of the United Nations, but it is based in Washington, DC. For decades the U.S. had an absolute dictator vote at the IMF, but that has changed somewhat.
While doing the bidding of the IMF (re-igniting the "frozen" civil war in the Donbass), Zelensky was also capitulating to the neo-Nazis and reneging on his campaign promise to bring peace to the Donbass.
Ukraine's far-right, thuggish police state has suppressed all the opposition political parties and seized their TV stations. Ukraine's Interior Ministry, in charge of the police, was run from 2014 to 2021 by neo-Nazi kingpin Arsen Avakov.
Your point is what, comrade? That the US, NATO, the IMF, and all of the rest of us Vampire Liberals should turn our backs on Ukraine and cede it to the gentle, enlightened ministrations of Vladimir Putin?
Nyet! The Ukrainian people have taken great pains, really enormous pains as a matter of fact, to indicate that they feel they would be better off throwing their lot in with the western Vampire Liberals. We vamlibs (worse than libtards?) should strongly support those goals. If we don't, then the Allied soldiers who fell at Anzio, Normandy, Guadalcanal, and Iwo Jima died for nothing.
Before Hitler there was Harvard. After Hitler there was Harvard. There will be Harvard after Putin. Are you seeing a pattern here?
I don't think that Vampire Liberals are really liberals. Maybe they're imposters from tiny corporatist Delaware, which is basically a suburb of Wall Street.
Ukraine has been turned into a zombie soldier by the IMF (demanding that Ukraine re-conquer the Donbass as a loan condition) and NATO (whose countries have voting domination at the IMF), which supplies endless weapons as long as Ukrains kill themselves in Russian meat-grinders.
Before Hitler there was Harvard and the rest of the genocidal Eugenics crowd:
Although coincidentally the Republicans walked out of conference on the same day as Trump delivered his screed on blowing up negotiations, should we take it they were actually responding to Trump's command? And if so, their success or lack of it in negotiations so far has nothing to do with their action; they are trying to appease the former president rather than solve a political crisis of their own making.
“Washington’s dysfunction” is just another version of the MSM “both sides” bs. It’s not Washington’s dysfunction of course, but the GQP, and still the MSM continues to carry water for the dyspatriots (they are not simply unpatriotic, but actively hostile to America, hence, dyspatriots).
You know what would be fun? Joe Biden not waiting until the last moment to announce that “the 14th Amendment makes Kevin the banty capon moot, and besides that, just eff the GQP,” then goes about his previously planned schedule, cue Chicken Little.
I agree John, Biden should cut them off at the knees now rather than later. The vast majority of Americans want the ceiling lifted cleanly as it has been before (or they aren't aware at all) and are getting sick of this hostage situation. Tell the little minority of dyspatriots (AKA traitors) that their little game is over, invoke the 14th and let everyone breathe a sigh of relief. Just step off Airforce 1 and go to the Oval and DO IT. Another byproduct will probably having McCarthy ejected from the speakership because he couldn't deliver.
The foolishness of attempting to blackmail the president is a clear photo that today's Republican't. And while the world is watching and waiting the magapublicans and their idiot leaders are forgetting; the American voters are watching too!
The voters are watching but also have proved to be distractable. We need to make Republicans wear their treachery. Direct and hold the focus. That's what successful social movements do. Yeah, politics is rough and tumble, but Republicans are now way out of bounds on so many things.
The danger to humanity is that the morally grotesque can, by way of persistence, can become perceived as normative, as slavery once was (four of our first five presidents held slaves, 12 in all). As Obama put it, "we tortured some folks", but isn't that a crime against humanity? We deliberately stole children from immigrant families, and many have still not been returned. Isn't that a crime against humanity? But, like the latest mass shooting, it becomes "normal", even if we hate it. Successful movements focus on an aspect of what is both horrible and "normal", and shake us awake.
“We need to make Republicans wear their treachery. Direct and hold the focus. That's what successful social movements do. Yeah, politics is rough and tumble, but Republicans are now way out of bounds on so many things.”
To do this we need to divest greedy, corporate monopolies from control of air waves and cyberspace. Yes Biden’s plan to invest in infrastructure to bring WiFi to remote/rural homes will put a dent in their inability to access information other than what is spewed by “dark money” and the Chris Licht’s in our world. However propaganda is fed into those homes continuously. I remember in the 90’s, thinking that Clear Channel was on a mission to hijack minds by buying up all the airwaves. Could have something to do with the mess we’re in? (The Brainwashing of My Dad documentary comes to mind)
We need to figure out an ethical, democratic way to slow the propaganda from maliciously driven sources.
"It would also kill popular support for his return to a government that supports ordinary Americans rather than concentrating wealth at the top of the economy, as Republicans insist—contrary to economic studies—will expand the economy and benefit everyone. "
Aside from economic studies, where be these benefits? After more than 40 years of so called "Supply Side Economics" * are we in aggregate more financially secure and more secure in our employment? More secure and comfortable in retirement? Have an easier path to needed education and living-wage job opportunities? Can more easily afford a first home? Have the ranks of the "middle class" dramatically swelled ** ? Where's the beef? You have to wonder how we can succeed as a self-determining nation if the public cannot be bothered to connect the dots.
* Who supplies what in economics? Would you rather be marooned on a remote and deserted but habitable island with a carpenter, a farmer, a botanist, or a bank manager?
** Actually, since the "Reagan Revolution" the "middle class" has shrunk.
The MAGA cabal understands nothing about economics, democracy, good government or even politics. The only thing they care about is "owning the libs," even if that means destroying the country and the the rest of the world that relies on the U.S. to be a stable leader. Someone needs to send these spoiled brats to their room until they learn how to be better behaved.
I suggest we chip in and buy the professor a t-shirt emblazoned with: "Banned in Russia, and Proud of It."
Putin has reason to fear her for the truth she brings to light.
Exactly!
And I would respectfully suggest that along with the "Banned in Russia.." statement, a second line in Cyrillic that translates as NASTY WOMAN!🤣
I belong to the Nasty Woman organization in Indiana, Vigo County and Clay County! Thank goodness for them and Heather. They got me through the four years of hell we endured during tfg as president. We survived that....I pray we can continue to survive. I only have a few more years left...but my granddaughter has a life time to go....(I worry)!
I bet you are so bummed, Heather, that you can’t take that summer vacation to Russia this year! Actually I think that being banned is quite an honor and a badge of your influence and success in speaking the truth about world affairs.
Agreed!
OK, Sharon, can I get an honorary membership in the "Nasty Woman" organization?!? Sounds to me like the reverse Groucho Marx type of situation, i.e., I would gladly join that club were it to have me as a member!
God bless you, your granddaughter, and all the Nasty Distaff Hoosiers!
You can start the Auxiliary! 😃
I’ll join...for my family, also, all the way down to 3 little great greats!
That’s where I was born and raised. Moved away after college, and I’ve never looked back. Even so, I continue to be surprised at how hard right the good folks from that area have gone — including family. I don’t understand it.
Dave, it is very sad! There are so few of us Lefties! "We are the bad people"!!!!
There was always the undercurrent of the far right, but I think common sense and religious values (knowing right from wrong) was enough to bring folks to the middle. But once Trump got into office and made it ok to publicly put voice to any dark thought or weird conspiracy theory, that was it.
Keep the faith that when all is said and done, folks like us will be on the right side of history.
Thank you, Dave!
🤣😂
Try this one: "неприятная женщина", or "мерзкая женщина", these (there are a couple more variants) via one of my good translation sites (not Google!). . .
I like it, Bruce!
I will alternate between that newly adapted T shirt, and the one that depicts Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, Ms. Omar, Ms. Pressley and Ms. Tlaib stating, "I support the Squad"!
And the translation is?
"Nasty woman" or "Wicked woman" or "Dirty woman"
🤣🤣🤣
😂
Love that!!
Michael as a member of the Nixon white house enemies list I applaud Heather for being banned in Russia
You know, Trump had a letter from Nixon, praising his "talents", hanging in his office. Scary. My alma mater had to remove Nixon's picture from the Law Library because it kept getting trashed - shame on me, but I was proud of that, ha!
Tricky dick and dicky donald
or perhaps donald dick
Ha Ha! Good one. From now on...!
Perfect!
Problem is, he’d probably be proud of that nickname…
Well done
I grew up in Whittier. Imagine how I feel!
Nixon was a complex and difficult personality. He did some terrible things, like stealing the '68 election. But there were some shreds of decency in the man, and he went through some bad stuff which partially explains the bad he did, unlike Trump.
Nixon lost two brothers in childhood. He got up at some ungodly early hour as a kid to work in his father's store, but his father never gave him any emotional support. (My maternal grandfather was like that towards my mother, who emotionally disowned him at age 6.)
Trump has no redeeming features. He is an absolute piece of slag, and I wish he would either go to prison or kick the bucket. ASAP.
Of course, Nixon sometimes did tar his opponents. As a little kid, I'd heard how he'd tarred Rep. Helen Gahagan Douglass when they'd run for Senate in 1950.
Background info for this story: my parents were both trained economists. During the 1960 election, I had this friend Ralphie, whose maternal grandfather was a cofounder of Nordstrom's, the only one of which at tht time was in Seattle. Ralphie's mother was interior decorator to Seattle's elite, which included John Ehrlichman, later a close aide to Nixon. So, the only thing surprising about the political arguments we'd get into was the fact that we were having these arguments in second grade.
One day my mother was driving, with the two of us in the car. I probably remember this story not because I was the protagonist, but because my mother told it so many times. "You know Ralphie, you really shouldn't vote for Nixon," I told him, "Because he called that lady in California something like an economist."
My mother didn't laugh much, but she sure laughed when she told that story. She got such a kick out of it!
David Nixon rode the pumpkin papers a long way, before Watergate dashed him with scalding water and he melted (momentarily). Nixon was globally strategic and didn’t give a shit about meat-and-potato domestic issues. As founder of Environment Day, personally he was totally disinterested (until the oil leak by Santa Barbara).
I did not discern a Nixon ‘cult.’ A number of people snuggled up to Nixon’s presidential power—and he worked his butt off funding for Republicans 1960-1968, but when Watergate hit a 9-0 Supreme Court ruling, virtually no significant Republican stood by Nixon during the impeding impeachment trial in the Senate.
Sadly, there is a Trump cult what personally I find inexplicable. I certainly wouldn’t want him as a role model in a Sunday school class, (unless I wanted a portrait of Satan).
Out of the mouths of babes and moms! Brilliant.
I lived in Yorba Linda so don’t feel bad. Do remember as a child when we would stop at the Nixon family restaurants on the way from LA to Brea. It as always a treat.
Do you mean Scandia Gardens, in a bid house on Beach Blvd in La Habra?The Milhouse family owned Seafare Inn on Whittier Blvd in Whittier. I went to school with 2 different sets of Nixon cousins.
Our hometowns have interesting histories, eh?
No. This perhaps 1955or 56. The Nixon family had an outdoor restaurant on Whittier blvd(heading toward La Habra) on right hand side of street. Dirt with picnic tables and wonderful little apple pies. That was sold but they still had a regular one further down the street.
I was raised in Brea but my great uncle knew Nixon and a bunch of other “interesting “ people. Very active in the Navy League. Family dinners were something else . Kind of like congress after a few glasses of wine.
Keith, were you in the Top Ten (10) or was the EL alphabetical? I would love being on any list with HCR, BHO" & S Colbert
.
Just a guppy among. Whales. Faced some kick back. Got a nyt article out of it
Did they not include Bernie - bet he feels left out? Or was he already on the list?
Went there on his honeymoon. Came back praising them.
Has Bernie publicly denounced Putin/Russia since the invasion of Crimea or Ukraine?
We should make ourselves honorary members!!
Now that’s an honorific!
She is our hero...as you are, Keith!
Bravo, Keith! How did you earn that honor? Thank you for teaching us more history.
I sp0ke truth to power and was undaunted.
Congratulations!
Rock on HCR. We should all wear t-shirts - I STAND WITH HCR. Men like Putin are so threatened by a smart, educated woman with a world view that their only choice is to ban them? Screw him and every other man like him. #iStandWithHCR #TheFutureIsFemale
It’s not only despicable dictators like Putin … sometimes it just average men. (Sorry, guys; but I’ve experienced it.)
I think that many of us have, MLM.
My "favorite" one of these was getting dressed down by a sergeant for not finishing a report before I went home following graveyard shift (this was a common practice). As this was going on, my shift compadre came in, heard what was going on, and came up and stood next to me. The sergeant said "What are you doing here, Ed?" He replied "I'm two reports down from Monday, and did not finish my burglary report from last night, so I must be in trouble too." Nothing ever came of this, because the sarge shut up immediately. I found out years later that he (the sarge) had made it his mission to send two of the three female road deputies we had back to the jail (but not the pretty blond one.)
And love how this story highlights the importance of being someone willing to stand up for someone else. We all need to have each other’s back. That’s where courage gets super-charged!
I am reminded of the story in Denmark after the Nazis had occupied the country. The Nazis decreed that all Jews had to wear a prominent Star of David. The next morning the Danish king appeared wearing a Star of David.
I would be delighted to wear a HEATHER BANNED IN RUSSIA shirt.
The Danes were heroic protecting the Jews in WWII. Puts the US to shame
I remember, after being point man in 1964 for a military rescue of 3,000 foreign hostages threatened with death by Congolese rebels, when an ambassador (formerly in Nigeria and non-French speaking) came up to me and said “Keith, we did it.’
Actually, as head of the Congo Working Group, he had sought to sabotage the rescue operation. I replied “Mr. Ambassador, you didn’t do a f++king thing.” I felt good and he was speechless, because he knew I spoke the truth.
Along these lines....wonder what would happen if Heather's several thousand followers "stood next to her" by adding all of our names to the list. In fact, if enough U.S. citizens signed on to the banned list it would ruin the cruise ship/ tourism industry in Russia. "Soft sanction"............
Okay, Carol. I searched but couldn't find where the list is published. Do you know where it is?
I assume you knew, Ally, even before your shift compadre came in that you were not afforded equal treatment over your "failure"? The ugly is that it was and in a lot of ways still is the status quo. Ugh!
Exactly so.
What a great story! Yes, there are those men who by their presence or words show the hypocrisy of others, and thank God for them.
Agreed. There are a lot of wonderful, kind and good men in the world. But there are also a lot of sexists who demean, grab, ignore and worse if all, rape. Trump is one of those.
We all have. How many times, “boys will be boys?”...until the MeToo movement!
Me, too. We are survivors of narcissists! It seems like it is a growing epidemic’
I am leery of anything that sounds like a personality cult. I don't think something with her name or initials would do Heather any favors. She is capable of standing on her own, as she has amply demonstrated. I think that it is more that HCR stands with us. She props us up. In addition, there are many others who are involved with us in this quiet revolution.
I would, however, wear a t-shirt that says "We The People..." or "We're in this together". More inclusive, less clubbish, states what it is we stand for,
I agree. I want our leaders to be competent, honest, humble...and common. I want them to be fungible, so that when one retires, leaves, or is assassinated, another equally competent leader steps up right where their predecessor left off. I want each leader to continually encourage great subordinates, so that leaders can know that continuity of institutions is assured.
I also want genuine maple syrup on my waffle, and extra butter, please.
Dirk I find that your last wish is far easier to fulfill than your earlier fantasies. I retired as professor at age 80 after teaching 23 years. Whether or not I was competent or humble, at least I was honest. [Still bloviating 9 years later.]
Dirk, I'm with you all the way- even if sometimes they are aspirational, these are still legitimate things to expect and work for.
Lucky me: fresh butter that comes in 2# logs wrapped in parchment, and maple syrup from a farm just up the hills above me. I prefer pancakes. Think I'll make some with cranberries (in my freezer). I'd share but pancakes don't ship well. Where ever you are, I hope you have access to good butter and real maple syrup.
Annie I don’t consider standing tall with Heather or Mother Theresa a ‘personality cult.’ I considering it honoring someone who truly does good and whom I respect.
Acknowledge that. My point is how it would be interpreted. I don't want people to misunderstand what we are doing. And that is a concern: it has already been reworked that way in right wing circles. We already know that Heather is targeted by trolls, and I suspect we don't see the worst of them.
I'm also leery of personality cults. Thank you Annie!
And woman like him
When your whole success depends on lies, bribes and intimidation, the truth can burn red hot. Ouch!!
I was thinking along similar lines. You know you’re a formidable force of truth and reason when Putin bans you from Russia. Congratulations Heather! Even he knows how powerful your voice and influence is in preserving our democracy.
Thank you again, for being a constant, steady voice in our lives in this most uncertain & pivotal moment. You inspire me to keep working towards, ‘a more perfect Union’.
🏆 Lifetime Achievement Award, as Hillary noted. 👍🏻
I don't find myself envious very often. But today I am. Wouldn't it be cool to be on the same "banned in Russia list" as Heather Cox Richardson, Barack Obama and...Stephen Colbert?!
As for the Republicons who dare to undermine the full faith and credit of the US, are they not aiding and abetting our enemies? Isn't there a word for that?
Many of you have probably read this substack from Thom Hartman. If not, dig in, fasten your seat belt and try to control your digestion.
https://hartmannreport.com/p/trump-couldnt-possibly-be-a-russian?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
To Bill Alstrom: I call them TRAITORS, which is exactly what they are, but sadly, they are too stupid to know it.
Holy Toledo! I had read some of this information from Greg Olear several years ago, but not in this depth of detail.
I just ordered Thom's new book. We could make ourselves honorary members of that noble list via an online pledge or tee shirts with a slogan. Just sayin'
As good as banned in China. They, too, have their own list.
Yes, but maybe I’m too old for this, I fear for her safety. Professor, please stay vigilant. There are too many truly violent zealots now.
My thoughts go to Daniel Schorr, then of CBS and later NPR reading Nixon’s just-disclosed enemies list live, and discovering his own name.
And the T-shirt is a great idea.
I like the t-shirt idea - but not the use of the word "proud". That word, sadly, has now such a bad connotation we may have to ban it!
Just posted in another thread promoting "I stand with HCR" that I am leery of anything that sounds like a personality cult. I don't think something with her name or initials would do Heather any favors. She is capable of standing on her own, as she has amply demonstrated. I think that it is more that HCR stands with us. She props us up. In addition, there are many others who are involved with us in this quiet revolution.
I would happily wear a t-shirt that says "We The People..." or "We're in this together". More inclusive, less clubbish, states what it is we stand for.
Agreed....having had so many with that moniker come to Salem to cause problems.
We could say "Proud Girls"? LOL!
Absolutely!!! Plus a flag (5’x8’) to fly outside her home!
I'm actually in search of another flag to fly to even out the three I already have: U.S. flag, Ukrainian flag, and Antigua flag (my husband's home country). I'd like it to be 3'x5', though.
She is in good company!
...or what about one that says
"Add Me to the List"
Banned by Putin? Yes, Russia goes along with him, and technically it’s their government making the list. Words matter. World peace might be more of a possibility if we keep our doors/minds/hearts/words open to the resistors wherever they are?
The choice of words we put into the universe might help change a culture that sees an entire country as an enemy instead of the murdering tyrant that bullied his way to power?
I’m making an effort to change myself and putting words to it helps me, it’s just a thought and not my intention to direct anyone’s behavior. ❤️
I'm sure she was dying to visit Russia...I can just feel her disappointment....
President Biden needs to openly defy the Meltdown Squad, proclaim the debt ceiling unconstitutional, and that he will order our bills paid no matter how much they whine. Let the Melts tell SCOTUS how it's great to be a deadbeat while we get on with running this country.
It's time, Joe. Drop the nuke.
And then round up and arrest the congressional traitors.
You know, that is not simple hyperbole. Some of them, Jim Jordan, for example, participated to a degree in the Jan. 6 insurrection. And, anyone who would support another who wanted to overthrow the government of the United States has violated his/her oath of office and should be removed from office. We need to realize that we're actually at war.
Yes indeed Richard, this is modern warfare! The thought that one man can declare war on the entire world while we sit by helplessly, is patently absurd. Trump should be muzzled and put in a padded cell wearing a straightjacket. Insanity ad infinitum! Sedition is a most serious crime, and we'd best get out heads out of our rears and stop waiting fot The Fairy of Fairness to come along and save is!
The way I see it is that the repugnants are holding the USA hostage unless they get their way with their ridiculous demands which will hurt the country therefore they are going against the constitution and their oaths of office and that is treason ! Arrest them for treason !!
The Fairy of Fairness !! Love it
I need to understand. How is it that the party that only cares about corporate profits would even consider throwing the economy into the abyss? Are they that desperate about their pending losses that they are willing to cut off their nose to spite their face and risk default just to blame it on Biden? Wouldn't an easier path to attract voters be to address the will of the majority of Americans and allow abortion rights, gun control, freedom to read whatever we want, and butt out of our bedrooms??
Sophia - Exactly!
The Republicans are so desperate to hold onto power that they have lost all reason. They cut off their nose to spite their face.
Fox News is out of control, exploiting human psychological weaknesses toward tribalism and aggression.
It is ugly watching the Republican Party die. I just hope they don’t bring us all down with them.
The condition of the country will only improve when Fox News is changed or gone, and trump is gone.
The condition of the country will only improve if some republicans grow a spine ala Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger and tell the truth....
Think of The Constitution as a toolbox in your home. In it are your everyday used tools. Also are the scarcely, if never used ones. Well, the 14th Amendment needs to be seen just as that! You don’t use a lawn mower when making electrical repairs.
I have a feeling ol' Gym may be on Jack Smith's radar.
Me too and I hope he is.
I agree. We are in a psychological power and control war with domestic terrorists, democracy vs psychopathology.
Some of them are indeed part of insurrectionist block and I would love to see them indicted and at the very least, removed from office. Report from Oregon's senate....now up to 10 senators who, under measure 113, passed by 68 percent of the voters cannot run for reelection because they have 10 or more unexcused absences. They, of course, are planning to litigate this.
But of course they are.
Just had a “funny” thought: removed from the House, they can join the Proud Boys, etc., but while they’re in Congress Jack Smith can keep an eye on them.
The very first thing that needs to happen is to remove them from office. They're seditionists, for heavens sake. Their intent is to bring down the government. Are we so blind that we can't see the obvious?
I agree, but it looks like anything goes as long a Rs do it.
I guess they couldn’t count
That’s their “move-the-goal-post” M.O.
You are right they should be removed from office! How? JJJ (jacket-less Jim Jordan) is pathetic a-hole.
Instead, McCarthy, spineless wonder that he is, hands them a gas can and a box of matches!
That is a GREAT idea, arrest them and sentence all of them ''life, without parole'' let them rot in prison as far as i am concerned.
The prison DeSanity wants to build next to Disney world!
Please. Don't be silly or indeed reckless. You sound like a Russian thug or Chinese communist more than happy to ignore our freedoms. Think about it.
Michael, breaking laws should not come with political immunity
I do not see anything in Michael's post that suggests that was what MIchael meant. I agree with him. Some of the preceding comments were reckless: the very kind of thing we criticize the right-wing extremists for saying.
It maybe reckless to say “round them up” as they are not cattle though they hardly appear human to some of us, but it does seem our beautiful democratic principle of equal justice under the law is struggling to hold traitors to our constitution accountable for their crimes. So there is nothing “silly” about it! And it seems that the finger you’re pointing at TC in saying he sounds like a Russian thug leaves three of your own fingers pointing back at you.
It appeared to me that Michael was responding to JohnT. It's one thing to round up and arrest people where there is evidence that they have broken the law, as TC wrote (in his brusque style). The next step is court and legal process. It's another thing to suggest they should simply be rounded up and put in prison to rot for life.
I agree with Michael that at times we are entirely too cavalier in some of the judgments we make that seem to toss Constitutionally guaranteed freedoms and processes for certain groups of people we have already passed judgement on. In that framework, Michael is quite correct that it makes some of us sound like vindictive thugs.
As he said, think about it. Is this the kind of people we want to be?
And you sound like a moron. Go jump in your Volvo and run over to Whole Foods to get your cucumber sandwiches.
Oh, TC, I wish you hadn't written this. All those insults and tropes over a silly misunderstanding about who was replying to who(m). It's not even clear who it is YOU are responding to, but either way, sometimes it's just a good idea to just skip over and move on, let the little things go by.
I hope you are doing better.
Call it what it is
Oh my my, Oh Hell yes!
Gotta put on that party dress (prison orange)
Lookin’ down from my cell block room, Jury will be back too soon.
A wish VERY near and dear to my heart!!!
https://personalinterpretations.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/goya-executions-of-the-third-of-may-1808.jpg
Look at the executioners in this painting. Aren't they also, in a very real sense, killing themselves? Aren't they viewed by history as monsters, thugs? Just like the Nazis -- sure they killed millions of people, but didn't they also kill themselves, merely by giving everyone else great motivation to do it for them? Even over 80 years later, nothing is too horrible to happen to a German Nazi, just look at the new movie "Sisu." WWII wasn't merely a war of German aggression, it was a German mass suicide, a national equivalent of "suicide by cop."
I don't want to persecute or execute anyone, because I don't want to persecute and execute myself, or give someone else a good reason to do so.
I wish!
Every last one of them
Perhaps President Biden will continue to negotiate in good faith right up until the end as the adult in the room, giving the Republican House every opportunity to do the right thing in full display for the American people. And then at the last minute use the Fourteenth Amendment only as a last resort. Jamie Raskin’s argument for using it seems quite valid and coming from a Constitutional scholar adds quite a bit of weight to his argument.
You can't negotiate with toddlers.
Who are the very definition of terrorists in some ways...
AJT: Perfect description! Just like the plate- and catsup-throwing leader!
Toddlers are cute and need cuddling and care. These guys are Ebola and need to be destroyed.
I never thought of it this way quite before. (Yes I have long thought they are toddlers. especially trump and MTG). One way to deal with a problem toddler is to strap them in their high chair, hold their nose shut and spoon feed them. Maybe not an approved method today, I am an old fart, but that worked when we were in our twenties.
I happen to believe you are correct. The old fox maybe a little slow but I think he will bite, and kill this debt ceiling crap for ever.
It is his duty!
Bruce
Agree! Biden is not going to let this go over the cliff. He's letting them play out their little game of chicken to show the American people who they really are. They're acting tough (all the while knowing Biden won't let default happen.) Their voters will give these bullies the punch in the nose they so rightly deserve at reelection time.
I hope that's his game plan, Bruce. But the time to lance the GOP boil is now--he can use this crisis to leapfrog the entire "how high should we raise the debt ceiling?" and land on "debt ceiling? What debt ceiling? Fuck a bunch of debt ceiling, I don't recognize it as constitutional and I refuse to obey it. Treasury, keep sending those checks to Grandma."
That approach makes him a Navy SEAL hunting terrorists, not a nice guy negotiating with lunatics, and Americans do love their SEALs. And in this rare instance, it's justified: the terrorists are threatening our economy and Biden needs to take them out for good. He can do that on live TV and make himself look strong, which gives him momentum for 2024.
Win-win.
Could not agree more. The world is ready to see the backbone we all desperately want to believe you have Mr. President. Don't play chicken anymore with these terrorists. Just get it done so it's settled. Prove that you won't stand for this recklessness, not that you can outlast them until they (maybe) cave. I understand the temptation, but it's a bad idea. With all due respect, Sir. Pick which aftermath is more damaging to the nation and the world. The choice should be clear.
I totally agree. Tfg would have done it a long time ago. Bully up Mr. President. These people are not the majority. You tried, you gave them a chance. They are mostly criminals led by the most immoral blathering idiot ever to desecrate the White House.
I totally agree.Biden should not give an inch to these irresponsible thugs.Besides, any concessions that he would give them would be used by them as ammunition against him and the entire Democratic Party.
When my son wanted to argue for a later curfew, every time he would name a later time, I backed his old curfew up by a half hour. After some back and forth, he decided his original curfew was fine. Possible strategy for dealing with the immature idiots. Imagine what the R's would do if the shoe were on the other foot?
What is the big question? If it says it right there in the Constitution.....If Joe “invokes” it, what are the consequences of 14;4???
In the country (and probably the world), huge relief and life goes on. In Congress, a huge tantrum, lawsuits, the Supreme Court, whose reaction cannot be known from where I am, but my guess is they will do anything to avoid being caught up in this, considering the bind they have finally realized they are in. But who knows? I think Biden would prevail, but there would sure be a lot of noise for a while.
Best to ignore the noise, keep beady eyes on the SC, and wait it out while we keep working on raising awareness (as opposed to calling names and being hoity-toity indignant). I pretty much hope Biden goes there, because I think that it very well could result in returning some balance to our national government in the long term, and maybe even the short term.
In the debt ceiling crisis, the GOP is bin Laden with a new set of airplanes. Mr. Biden needs to be the Navy SEAL who stops them before the planes hit us again.
I hope it works out for wisdom and sanity. It's worrying. https://www.politico.com/news/2023/05/19/biden-14th-amendment-debt-ceiling-00097930
Agreed that this is getting very worrisome, because that wing of the GOP is insane and would cheerfully see our economy collapse in order to "own the libz." I think Biden needs to go live on prime time and shove the 14th Amendment down their throats. Time for nice is over.
I don't think that "this is getting very worrisome." It got to that point a long time ago, during the Obama presidency and even before when Newt Gingrich began the war on polite political discourse. We now have these white Christian nationalists who want power and not necessarily through the democratic process - one person, one vote, majority rule.
Good point Richard.
One person, one vote; but ONLY one person. Isn’t that their goal?
Agreed in general, Richard, but I was referring only to the debt ceiling crisis. This cancer started with Reagan, and Trumpism is its metastasized Stage 4.
Exactly!
Thx for the Politico article. I'm tempted to go off on the reluctance to have the Exec branch simply make clear ASAP that it will continue to borrow to have the funds to spend as the Legislative branch has appropriated them according to a budget the Exec has signed into law, and to honor all outstanding debt, notwithstanding the unconstitutional "ceiling." That reluctance seems foolish to me; the validity of the debt so incurred, as the saying goes, "shall not be questioned" -- a principle whose recognition I would expect to greatly improve our credit rating and interest rate, whereas abiding by that "ceiling" in the presence of a bloc in Cong who are totally willing to blow it all up is already bumping up the interest rate the US has to pay. (I'd love to see a quantification of the increase in the interest rate we're having to pay to service that debt because of this attempted extortion.). But I haven't read much and it's not the sort of thing on which I should draw an opinion from the air. Anyone have links to knowledgeable thoughts on the subject? Dr R?
Shall not be questioned.
That's pretty clear. How do they get around that one?
They use their Orwell. Up is down. White is black.
We can never trust them to be reasoned with.
Here's another Politico article published yesterday that has discussion from various perspectives about the use of the amendment, and how that might work. Or not. Still on the table, though.
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/05/19/14th-amendment-biden-debt-ceiling-00097932
I take Politico with a grain of salt. Their articles can be informative, but they often tend to lack nuance, imho.
"Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is against invoking the 14th Amendment and said, “Unconstitutionally acting without Congress [is] not an option.”"
How is it unconstitutional to invoke a clearly stated provision in the U.S. Constitution? Similar question posed to Janet Yellen's statement that it would be "legally questionable".
This related Politico article addresses reasons that the President is reluctant to trigger a 14th Amendment override. https://www.politico.com/news/2023/05/19/biden-14th-amendment-debt-ceiling-00097930
Damn, Mitch doesn’t like a Dem idea, how could that be??
Activist/Commenter Jerry Weiss.
“So if you want to do something more than just talk about this, you can call or write to the following Republicans urging them to sign the petition when it comes up:”⬇️⬇️⬇️
One thing that won't happen is all 218 Republicans voting for a debt-limit / spending-cut package. Their "Limit, Save, Grow" bill only passed because moderates were persuaded that it would never become law. But the fact is moderates won't support all the cuts MAGA demands, and MAGA won't agree to drop them. Therefore, whatever emerges will necessarily be passed with a bipartisan majority.
Secondly, the negotiations taking place are not about the debt limit bill. They are about the budget. The idea is to reach a budget agreement now, which would also avoid a government shutdown in the Fall. But whatever cuts are agreed to will not be directly tied to the debt bill.
How do I know? President Biden was very explicit on Wednesday morning before leaving for Japan: "To be clear, this negotiation is about the outlines of what the budget will look like, not about whether or not we're going to, in fact, pay our debts."
Kevin McCarthy will probably stand with MAGA, since he promised them in exchange for their votes making him Speaker back in January. That means the discharge petition is the most likely vehicle for resolving the "crisis" he created and is solely responsible for.
Democrats are united in supporting the discharge petition, meaning only 5 or 6 Republican votes will be needed to bring a bill to the floor and pass it. So if you want to do something more than just talk about this, you can call or write to the following Republicans urging them to sign the petition when it comes up:
John Curtis (UT-3), Ashley Hinson (IA-2), Brian Fitzpatrick (PA-1), David Joyce (OH 14), Victoria Spartz (IN-5), Don Bacon (NE-2), Mike Gallagher (WI-8), Andrew Garbarino (NY-2), Nancy Mace (SC-1), Dan Newhouse (WA-4), and David Valadao (CA-22)
Their contact information can be found here:
https://JerryWeiss.substack.com/p/nows-the-time
Just scroll down past the parts about our network's effort to remove and replace Speaker McCarthy, and you'll find all the info you need, including short bios of each.
https://open.substack.com/pub/roberthubbell/p/reader-comments-open-for-weekend?r=fqsxl&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
If this is the case why are we encouraging panic in the world by allowing countries to believe we might default on our debts? That seems extremely dangerous if we could have fixed this by now.
The right wing extremists in Congress love the feeling of power it gives them. And it is not "us" doing the panic mongering. It is the right wing media. Panic=clicks=money=influence.
To be coarse, but realistic, this gives them a boner. They love playing bad boy tough guy, but they won't suffer in any crash, WE will.
Well this was enlightening. We still have two Dem holdouts (one of is my Rep.! 😡😡)on that petition and this viewpoint from Vox adds a whole lot of history and why if it happens it will be a last ditch effort.
It’s an effing mess and these insurrectionists and Putinistas have got to GET the H out of our Congress!!
https://www.vox.com/platform/amp/politics/2023/5/17/23726857/debt-ceiling-discharge-petition-mccarthy
I find petitioning worse than useless, so, no thanks. The only thing that kinda works is calling the local office of your congressperson and complaining. Phone calls, they take seriously. Petitions, postcards, written letters, those all go to an offsite sorting station to check for anthrax, then shredded. Pols never see those things.
Their phone numbers are all in the contact info that she posted. I may well be have misunderstood, but I read it as the “petition” Kathy is referring to, is the “discharge petition” the Dems will present as a last ditch effort. I just posted a Vox article that lays it out. I had read about it months ago but then it go lost in all the other 💩💩💩 we’ve been wading thru.
Thanks for clarifying this, Christy. There are so many mounds of elephant poo to wade through I'm surprised we haven't drowned :-) Thanks for listing he phone numbers of the congresscritters; that's the only thing to which pols pay any attention, the number of constituents who call the home office and lodge their views.
Thank you Kathy. It feels so awful not to do anything. I know they don't pay attention to anyone out of district if you connect, but at least it let's them know we are watching carefully and will keep hounding their phone lines, emails and taking action!
Raising the debt ceiling has always been a done deal. This should not be an issue and Biden was right not to negotiate and throwing the nut jobs a bone only emboldens them. Biden always wants to be bipartisan, and in the past that was doable, but not with these crazies.
Absolutely. Bipartisan works only if partisans are reasonable. These particular Republicans are terrorists, not lawmakers, and they need not horsetrading, but horsewhipping. I'm ready for Mr. Biden to leap beyond "raise the debt ceiling" into "end the debt ceiling circus by making it unconstitutional," and he can do that only by exercising the raw political power that comes with the office.
Why are we at this point? Those nuts in the House want to destroy everything they can. They are a minority that thinks they have the power to destroy. Biden will not let them.
"Biden will not let them."
I hope you're right, Harvey, but I don't see any signs of him going medieval on their ass. Biden is a good president, but he's born of the Senate, so negotiating, dealmaking, and horsetrading, not raw power, is in his bones.
But terrorists respond only to power, not reason. It's time for him to declare the debt ceiling law unconstitutional, order the Treasury to keep paying our bills, let the MAGAs scream like scalded roaches, bait them into suing, and throw the whole mess at SCOTUS. I believe the Supremes will rule the debt ceiling unconstitutional because (a) it is, and (b) Roberts will not allow the Second Great Depression to stain his legacy. Problem Solved.
Biden looks strong and in-charge, and that's good for 2024.
Excellent comment. Using the debt ceiling as a weapon is like using a bomb to get into your own home. Not paying bills for stuff you already bought is what dead beats do. How we tolerate such stupid childish, attention grabbing, narcissist, small minded nut jobs anywhere near seats of power is beyond us.
And he needs to do it in a nationally televised speech that clearly explains (with bullet points/charts) the issue. We desperately need a major marketing and educational effort for reasonable people who haven’t been paying attention.
Yes. Absolutely this. It needs to be second-grade-simple, too, like "Fake News!" or "MAGA good, libs evil." Trumpists are great at generating simple but devastating attack points, and we need to do it on that. "Republicans want your grandmother to die. I won't let them."
Yes but NO NUKES please!!!
Metaphorically, of course.
HCR shares the thought of imperialist Vampire Liberals, warning that the congressional debt ceiling crisis "will hurt the power of the dollar, whose domination of the international monetary system has brought the U.S. extraordinary advantages."
Yes indeed, as comfortable American Vampire Liberals and their Almighty Dollar have benefitted from the most far-reaching genocide in history. Quoting from the resignation letter of senior IMF official Davison Budhoo:
"To me resignation is a priceless liberation, for with it I have taken the first big step to that place where I may hope to wash my hands of what in my mind’s eye is the blood of millions of poor and starving peoples. ...The blood is so much, you know, it runs in rivers....
"The charges that I make touch at the very heart of western society and western morality and post-war inter-governmental institutionalism that have degenerated into fake and sham under the pretext of establishingand maintaining international economic order and global efficiency....
"Will the world be content merely to brand our institution as among the most insidious enemies of humankind? Will our fellowmen condemn us thus and let the matter rest? Or will the heirs of those whom we have dismembered in our own peculiar Holocaust clamor for another Nuremberg?
"I don’t mind telling you that this matter has haunted me; it has haunted me particularly over the past five years. It has haunted me because I know that if I am tried I will be found guilty, very guilty, without extenuating circumstance...."
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/january-15-2023/comment/11967315
Why are you blaming only liberals for this? Conservatives have their hands in the money pot as much as anybody else. As for Davison Budhoo and "the blood is so much, you know, it runs in rivers," he needs to switch to decaf. The last thing this debt crisis needs is melodrama.
Why do you pretend that I only "blame liberals"? Nice job of dishonest misdirection.
And your dismissal of Davison Budhoo without any discussion whatsoever of his 100-page resignation letter qualifies you as yet another IMF Holocaust denier.
Gee, could it be your use of "Imperialist Vampire Liberals" with no mention whatsoever of conservatives who gleefully participate in IMF?
I have no love for the IMF, as it has caused immense harm across the planet. But his letter is so full of tortured anguish as to be soap opera---and comparing it to the Holocaust was sick.
...said the depraved IMF Holocaust denier. The IMF Holocaust, going far beyond the smaller Nazi Holocaust, was/is responsible for the deaths of tens of millions of people, especially starving dark-skinned babies, people whom elitist Vampire Liberals don't care about.
I wear your disgust as a badge of honor, pal. Go play in traffic.
Agreed. You don’t negotiate with self proclaimed, gun toting, truth flouting, rapturous nihilists who have already shown they don’t care about democracy, the health of the planet, the health of the American people, the vote, equal protection under the law, or science. They care about power. It’s very Tolkien.
I moved 30% of my retirement out of stocks and into money market type funds. Anyone else?
PS - sorry for the Putin shout out HCR. We are living in the second Cold War, and this time we have many traitors amongst us. Thank you for your service.
The GOP, should be careful about what they wish for. Default could bring incredible devastation to themselves, rather than the victory against good democratic government, they strive for. Then , the rest of us will have to clean up the mess the extremists have left us. Fortunately , Joe Biden is good at fixing what they have broken. All this can be avoided by Biden going for the nuclear option. I think he will. There is no retreat from the other side, obviously, so why not?
Agreed. Trump, not the Democrats, got the blame for the last government shutdown, so that backfired on the GOP. A default that brings the Second Great Depression will break the GOP like a dried-out tree branch ... but who wants to go through that nightmare?
Time for Joe to drop The Bomb. There is no downside and lots of upside, so he should do it on my birthday just because I'd like that as a present :-)
I agree, but given that he thinks it will end up in the courts, it should have been done months ago. Honestly, I’m scared. Scared nauseated.
I've been scared and anxious for the last 7 years, barring that brief moment of joy immediately after the 2020 election!
It's a seemingly never-ending torture.
How I loathe these people!
Yes, I understand. I agree. The fragility of our beloved democracy has never been this apparent in my 75 years of life. I find myself being grateful that I’m old and don’t have any children. Sad, isn’t it?
I feel exactly the same. I knew fascism might happen here but I never thought I would see it.
I'm honestly not scared, because ultimately, I believe the Supreme Court will rule the debt ceiling law unconstitutional and that ends this hostage-taking forever. This is a genuine crisis, as opposed to the fake media crises we see every week, and so SCOTUS will agree to hear the case directly and will rule in less than a week. But there is no case on which to rule unless the president goads the GOP into filing suit--so he needs to declare right now that he will ignore the debt law and order the Treasury to keep paying the bills.
I really really really hope you’re right.
Shane, I am with you 1000%!!!
Thanks, Cheryl. All we can hope is that Road Runner Joe is ready to drop an Acme safe on Coyote Republicans' head, but is keeping that to himself till he springs it.
It’s ludicrous that media is framing this as “congress needs to do their jobs” rather than “republicans are promising to damage the United States economy and defund critical infrastructure no matter what compromises democrats accept.” Their negotiations should be made public.
I agree with you, Johanna. Some of the news coverage is appalling, including on NPR. "Reporters" reduce the issue to a grade school playground fight and often appear to blame Biden more than the GOP and its extremist traitors.
Some lines should never be crossed; period. Big lies, torture, threatening assault to the common weal being among them. What Joseph Welch of the McCarthy reckoning called "decency". We seem to be losing sight of that, and yet it can make all the difference in the world.
Appearance of decorum seems gone forever.
I hope it's not forever, and in any era a lot of different stuff was happening. But I think that as a society we are wise to give points for good faith. Also for honesty. Alexander Vindman must have known he was wading into a nest of vipers when he whistle-blew on Trump. He still deserves more credit than he got, as MAGAs gleefully celebrate their homicidal "Brandon". Brooksley Born got to say "I told you so" when the subprime Ponzi scheme collapsed into the Great Recession, but she got shafted by more than dastardly Republicans, and still should be a far more visible as a role model. Creeps like Trump and MTG manage to hog the spotlight, but what of those who rendered great service to the cause of "liberty and justice for all", especially courageously and at personal cost?
And not only the appearance thereof.
NPR’s level of incompetence on this is astounding.
Unfortunately, NPR has lost its way...
Republicans are attempting work their will not though debate and merit, but by racketeering protocol, threatening to kneecap the country should their demands be refused. Some years ago I read of a rejected boyfriend who dangled a baby out of an upper story window, threatening to drop the child if the mother left him. Ethically this is related thinking, not as individually dire, yet threatening harm to many on a vastly larger scale.
And we know from past performances, the demands and the threats will only worsen if the manage to get away with it. Current Republicans are patently unfit for the responsibilities with which they have been entrusted.
That last sentence is very accurate in your post, JL Graham. They are totally unfit with anything relating to their responsibilities. It appears to me the only thing they would be fit for is cleaning out cesspools. They most likely couldn't even do that. Personally, i am disgusted and appalled that adults. or supposedly adults can act like the spoiled brats that don't get their way. The whole world is watching this too and wondering what the heck is going on and wondering how this is going to affect them.
Their grotesquely irresponsible behavior made "a thing".
It is 100% corporate owned media. Don’t look for journalism in the MSM, it isn’t there.
Hi everybody, first comment here after “lurking” for over a year. I’m a Dutch guy living in Germany, and the Letters by Prof. Cox Richardson have become my main source of news of America. Journalism the way she does it is rare these days.
I’m watching the debt ceiling crisis with disbelief and in agony. It’s unbelievable that the Republicans would crash the US economy, and collapse the world economy with it, but sure as hell they’re going to do it -because they WANT it. They want the ensuing carnage and chaos, heck, they’re probably already speculating on a dropping dollar, a rising yuan and exploding food prices. But most importantly: they will “own the libs”! Whatever bad happens, they and the American media will pin it on Biden - so yes, they got a “winning hand”. Now, slowly, I start to wonder… What did Putin promise them in return for destroying the world’s largest democracy?
P.S. Professor, you are famous! You should be proud to be on Putin’s little list :)
I am not so sure about a 'winning hand'. Even my more conservative acquaintances are finally reluctantly withdrawing from their fascination with Trump. He is at last getting too old and decrepit and incompetent and corrupt, even for them. They had winced at his more outrageous statements, but happily put up with him because he was a winner and when he attacked it wasn't against them, it was against the 'others' they hated. But now they seem a little bit less tolerant of his nonsense and the continual messes and drama he causes. Naturally, they insisted on voting for Trump because "this system needs to be blown up, and he's the man to do it..." and they are still virulently anti-government and convinced they are superior beings who were born to dictate what everyone else does. Most of them are Christian evangelist or Catholics who want taxpayers to pay for their religious schools. They are on the hunt for another authoritarian wannabe Trumper, such as De Santis, someone they think they can control (that's what scares me). However, even these folks are not particularly thrilled with McCarthy's MAGA driven attempts to sabotage our economy. They are wealthy enough to care about hanging onto their cash, but not so wealthy that their savings wouldn't take a massive hit from this cynical blackmail of America and affect their quality of life--maybe 2%ers, not 1%ers. They know MAGA is playing with fire. They mutter about "both parties" destroying our culture--for the first time they don't explicitly blame Democrats (the 'other') for everything. They're a little bit pissed about getting put in this corner, just enough to start kicking back. What they fail to understand is they lost control of their monsters long ago. Deplorables got in the driver's seat, and now we are all going for a bumpy ride none of us (or most of us) don't want. If these conservatives want to get off, they will need us to help them stop the runaway train. I myself hope the 14th Amendment is lowered like a boom. It should have been used long ago, to stop these stupid games of Chicken with our economy. Our bought-off corrupt SCOTUS is going to do what SCOTUS is wont to do in deciding this Constitutional crisis, but the country isn't going to be fooled about whose fault it is, regardless of their decision--and I think SCOTUS knows that and might blink. And I don't think the Republicans will be able to pretend this is Biden's fault, no matter how much the media bleats.
They will blame Biden for… well, whatever. A 90-year-old crone at my assisted living facility screeched at me about how she hates Joe Biden for putting all the guns on the streets.
Yes, what did Putin promise "his" Republicans (or threaten them with) in his war against the United States. No better way to destroy an enemy than to buy off its soldiers.
P.S. welcome Dutch!
Thank you!
Other than oil in the ground, which is looking to become less and less profitable to get out of the ground, what does Putin even have that any mentally healthy person could want? It appears they all have a pathological need for approval from an authoritarian “father-figure”.
Creepy, eh?! You are on to something. Unfortunately for all of us, something awful.
Then there's the push to build (at taxpayer expense, to the benefit of private enterprise) a new rail line to carry massive quantities of crude oil from Utah's Uinta Basin oil fields to refineries on the Gulf coast, for export. Parts of the line would run very close to upper reaches of the Colorado River so, in addition to adding the climate impacts of greater drilling in the Basin and greater amounts of oil exported to other parts of the world, would add the potential for serious impacts on river water that everyone downstream depends on in the event of one or more derailments. Construction of the rail line alone would have climate & ecological impacts in an unstable area. https://www.hcn.org/articles/south-oil-utahs-proposed-crude-oil-railway-could-see-an-accident-every-year
I agree with you, Christy! It sure looks like it. Maybe they are completely incapable of thinking for themselves, so they need someone to tell them what to think and what to do. Maybe some of them even have a ‘daddy kink’, who knows…
Chump would have handed the country willingly and with glee. That was clear at Helsinki
Yup. The guy never cared for America. For him, it’s not MAGA but MMGA: “making myself great again”…
Welcome in, DM!
Thanks!😊
Welcome, Dutch, and well said!!
Thanks a lot! 🙂
G and S 😉
Thanks for the warm welcome! I’m not very well-versed in American abbreviations, but I’m guessing “G and S” means “greetings and salutations”? 😉
Well, in this case it's certainly not Gilbert and Sullivan...
HCR shares the thought of imperialist Vampire Liberals, warning that the congressional debt ceiling crisis "will hurt the power of the dollar, whose domination of the international monetary system has brought the U.S. extraordinary advantages."
Yes indeed, as comfortable American Vampire Liberals and their Almighty Dollar have benefitted from the most far-reaching genocide in history. Quoting from the resignation letter of senior IMF official Davison Budhoo:
"To me resignation is a priceless liberation, for with it I have taken the first big step to that place where I may hope to wash my hands of what in my mind’s eye is the blood of millions of poor and starving peoples. ...The blood is so much, you know, it runs in rivers....
"The charges that I make touch at the very heart of western society and western morality and post-war inter-governmental institutionalism that have degenerated into fake and sham under the pretext of establishingand maintaining international economic order and global efficiency....
"Will the world be content merely to brand our institution as among the most insidious enemies of humankind? Will our fellowmen condemn us thus and let the matter rest? Or will the heirs of those whom we have dismembered in our own peculiar Holocaust clamor for another Nuremberg?
"I don’t mind telling you that this matter has haunted me; it has haunted me particularly over the past five years. It has haunted me because I know that if I am tried I will be found guilty, very guilty, without extenuating circumstance...."
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/january-15-2023/comment/11967315
Oh. You on Putin’s paylist, too?
Some neo-fascists like to flavor their love of Ukraine's oppressive right-wing thug regime with anti-Russian bigotry.
The IMF (with voting domination by NATO countries, including the Netherlands) extracted a pledge from Ukraine's President Poroshenko to re-conquer the Donbass (to help service the loan from back in 2014 with tevenue from Donbass heavy industry). Zelensky swore to keep that pledge, and moved to invade, while NATO promised endless weapons as long as Ukraine delivered pounds of bloody flesh. And Vampire Liberals are all right with that.
The IMF is part of the United Nations, but it is based in Washington, DC. For decades the U.S. had an absolute dictator vote at the IMF, but that has changed somewhat.
While doing the bidding of the IMF (re-igniting the "frozen" civil war in the Donbass), Zelensky was also capitulating to the neo-Nazis and reneging on his campaign promise to bring peace to the Donbass.
Ukraine's far-right, thuggish police state has suppressed all the opposition political parties and seized their TV stations. Ukraine's Interior Ministry, in charge of the police, was run from 2014 to 2021 by neo-Nazi kingpin Arsen Avakov.
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/neo-nazis-far-right-ukraine/
And Vampire Liberals in the USA are all right with that. As the saying goes, "Before Hitler, there was Harvard":
https://twitter.com/john_schmeeckle/status/1599051947096449024?s=20
I am joining the other early commenters in sending HUGE CONGRATULATIONS for making it onto Putin's shit list. This confirms exactly how important your work truly is. Keep shining the light of Democracy and know that your readers are ALL behind you!!
And next to you!
Very true!
And we weren't planning to go to Russia anyway. Not while he's running the place.
You could be imprisoned for life there.
1000% Steve!
HCR shares the thought of imperialist Vampire Liberals, warning that the congressional debt ceiling crisis "will hurt the power of the dollar, whose domination of the international monetary system has brought the U.S. extraordinary advantages."
Yes indeed, as comfortable American Vampire Liberals and their Almighty Dollar have benefitted from the most far-reaching genocide in history. Quoting from the resignation letter of senior IMF official Davison Budhoo:
"To me resignation is a priceless liberation, for with it I have taken the first big step to that place where I may hope to wash my hands of what in my mind’s eye is the blood of millions of poor and starving peoples. ...The blood is so much, you know, it runs in rivers....
"The charges that I make touch at the very heart of western society and western morality and post-war inter-governmental institutionalism that have degenerated into fake and sham under the pretext of establishingand maintaining international economic order and global efficiency....
"Will the world be content merely to brand our institution as among the most insidious enemies of humankind? Will our fellowmen condemn us thus and let the matter rest? Or will the heirs of those whom we have dismembered in our own peculiar Holocaust clamor for another Nuremberg?
"I don’t mind telling you that this matter has haunted me; it has haunted me particularly over the past five years. It has haunted me because I know that if I am tried I will be found guilty, very guilty, without extenuating circumstance...."
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/january-15-2023/comment/11967315
I remember when Republicans loved democracy and our country. Compromise was always part of politics. Too many of today’s so-called Republicans seem to just want to tear down and win, but don’t care what this means for our world standing and future. Are they willing to destroy our economy and the finances of most Americans in order to blame Biden so they can win elections? I hate to think that’s true, but the sad preponderance of evidence seems to point that direction.
My heart is breaking.
Mine too.
.
. . . . . . justice
.
to even consider my countless encounters
with injustice
cruelty
ignorance
and needless destruction
buries my heart ever deeper in despair
.
my repair
is prayer
.
and writing
.
a call to an even deeper truth
that lives in every cell of me
and the energy that surrounds my existence
movement
cognition
emotion
and the truth that soars through me
to the wonderful everywhere
.
of this moment in time
.
.
.
.
May 12 Thomaston, edited May 16
.
.
.
© 2023 Bill Eberle
Well written, inspiring and expressed exactly how I feel, too. We must remain sane and hopeful.
Yes.
That energy that surrounds your existence is, I think, spirit.
Yes. Of so many within, so many around everywhere through time, and so much more. We know so little of the mystery we call the universe. We're trying but we have just begun. I hope we're going to have a chance to continue. And yes the universe is physical, mathematical and spiritual. And all of it is contained for us poor creatures in each moment of awareness and gratitude.
SO TRUE! , Bill !
It ALL COMES BACK,
to "RETURNING, ...
To OUR FIRST LOVE!"
BLESSINGS!, to All,
Who. BELIEVE !
It's not that they want to win elections: They simply do not understand that cooperation is more than gobbling the entire pie, which only makes one sick.
And once they tear it down (not that this will happen), what exactly will they have won? What will be left for them to enjoy?
Rights to visit Russia.
Being on that Russian list is a huge badge of honor. Wear it with pride!
Not only is it time to invoke the 14th Amendment, it's also time to bring out the treason statute and have a predawn roundup of 50 House Republicans, starting with Dumbfuckingokiefornian McCarthy and his "leadership" crew of traitors, the Taliban 20, and the rest of the Fwee-cumb Kawkuss, and stuff them in the DC jail on charges of Treason. They have in fact declared war on the United States.
Where oh where are those FEMA camps for imprisoning the far right when we really need them?
Check your facts before casually trashing my home state, TC. According to Wikipedia, McCarthy is a 4th generation Dumbfuckingcalifornian of Irish descent with no ties of any kind to Oklahoma. There certainly are plenty of stupid right-wingers living here but also many kind and caring people who don't deserve this mean-spirited and lazy characterization.
Bakersfield, CA is known as the Oklahoma of California, and for good reason. There may be no ties of heritage to Oklahoma by the squeaker of the house, but that area was settled by people fleeing the dust bowl who hailed from Oklahoma.
Dear Ally,
Although I generally enjoy your comments, I think you are way off base here. Having lived in both Oklahoma and California, I'm well aware of the history of the 1930s. And I also understand that Bakersfield is a right-wing stronghold. No offense, but you seem to be missing the point that "Dumbfuckingokiefornian" is a slur just like the N-word and the C-word. Maybe it's OK with some people to use the O-word but it doesn't make it any less condescending and insulting. Back in the day Okies were regarded as subhuman troglodytes due to their reduced circumstances and apparently that prejudice still exists in some quarters. But casting slurs based on ethnicity/geography isn't going to get us to that more perfect union, not by a long shot.
My good friend from Oklahoma (who still has family in Norman) is the one who relayed that information regarding some of the dust bowl migration. I wasn’t passing judge on the slur, simply explaining how “Okie” comes to be a part of it.
My in-laws were from Oklahoma. Finer people never lived, but rats abound in every state. Texas has a fair share, but the big rats rule…. True in many places.
They have given us all plenty of evidence that treason is their game, and traitor is their name.
So now we're just going to turn into an authoritarian state that dispenses with whoever we decide is a threat? Sort of like the way we put Indigenous people in concentration camps, and the Japanese in remote communities made of shacks? Arrested people in the middle east just because they "looked suspicious" and stuck them for life in Guatanamo? Like the way we round up young black people but not young white people for simple infractions, because the black kids might be dangerous but the white ones are just blowing off steam? Who gets to make these decisions? And by what means? Stop it, TC. You are part of the problem.
"Their attack on the economy is more than that, though: it is an attack on the nation’s global standing."
I feel like my head will explode in disbelief and horror, that the Rethugs are willing to SINK THE SHIP we are all sailing on, including themselves, just to spite President Biden and "own the libs."
JustJanice: They don't have the intellect to think about sinking the ship . . .
You hit the nail on the head!
HCR shares the thought of imperialist Vampire Liberals, warning that the congressional debt ceiling crisis "will hurt the power of the dollar, whose domination of the international monetary system has brought the U.S. extraordinary advantages."
Yes indeed, as comfortable American Vampire Liberals and their Almighty Dollar have benefitted from the most far-reaching genocide in history. Quoting from the resignation letter of senior IMF official Davison Budhoo:
"To me resignation is a priceless liberation, for with it I have taken the first big step to that place where I may hope to wash my hands of what in my mind’s eye is the blood of millions of poor and starving peoples. ...The blood is so much, you know, it runs in rivers....
"The charges that I make touch at the very heart of western society and western morality and post-war inter-governmental institutionalism that have degenerated into fake and sham under the pretext of establishingand maintaining international economic order and global efficiency....
"Will the world be content merely to brand our institution as among the most insidious enemies of humankind? Will our fellowmen condemn us thus and let the matter rest? Or will the heirs of those whom we have dismembered in our own peculiar Holocaust clamor for another Nuremberg?
"I don’t mind telling you that this matter has haunted me; it has haunted me particularly over the past five years. It has haunted me because I know that if I am tried I will be found guilty, very guilty, without extenuating circumstance...."
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/january-15-2023/comment/11967315
The debt ceiling imbroglio possibly resulting in a vastly weakened US so plays into the goals of both Putin and Xi Jinping that it is hard to believe either one or both do not have a hand in in it. Certainly Putin has done all he can tp upset the US political apple cart especially since he got his hooks into the perfect stooge; Donald Trump. He has a potential team of stooges in the House MAGA caucus. A master manipulator like Putin would have an easy time with those dopes.
It seems outlandish, but it's one way Republican intransigence on the debt limit/default makes any sense at all.
Whatever the motivation, it's still treason every day House Republicans resisit a clean debt limit bill.
Not outlandish at all. I've come to the same conclusion myself. I believe we're already at war, with China and Russia combined. Exactly in the way you described. Trump will do anything to rise higher on the tower of the ultra wealthy and powerful. They'd have to be stupid not to see and try to seize this opportunity. I also believe the war on Ukraine is really a war on the USA first and foremost, because knocking us down makes the rest of the democracies easy pickins. These extreme Maga politicians aren't really Americans I mean that figuratively and possibly literally. They're part of a new world order in the making. War of attrition. Anyone watch the Caspian Report? Russia is playing the long game with USA. China is probably helping finance it. How's that for outlandish?
Makes perfect sense considering our current Republican comrades..
Ralph, why invoke our enemies when even our friends (Churchill?) recognized during an actual war (WWII) that "Americans can always be trusted to do the right thing...after all other possibilities have been exhausted"?
HCR shares the thought of imperialist Vampire Liberals, warning that the congressional debt ceiling crisis "will hurt the power of the dollar, whose domination of the international monetary system has brought the U.S. extraordinary advantages."
Yes indeed, as comfortable American Vampire Liberals and their Almighty Dollar have benefitted from the most far-reaching genocide in history. Quoting from the resignation letter of senior IMF official Davison Budhoo:
"To me resignation is a priceless liberation, for with it I have taken the first big step to that place where I may hope to wash my hands of what in my mind’s eye is the blood of millions of poor and starving peoples. ...The blood is so much, you know, it runs in rivers....
"The charges that I make touch at the very heart of western society and western morality and post-war inter-governmental institutionalism that have degenerated into fake and sham under the pretext of establishingand maintaining international economic order and global efficiency....
"Will the world be content merely to brand our institution as among the most insidious enemies of humankind? Will our fellowmen condemn us thus and let the matter rest? Or will the heirs of those whom we have dismembered in our own peculiar Holocaust clamor for another Nuremberg?
"I don’t mind telling you that this matter has haunted me; it has haunted me particularly over the past five years. It has haunted me because I know that if I am tried I will be found guilty, very guilty, without extenuating circumstance...."
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/january-15-2023/comment/11967315
How's the weather in Moscow, comrade?
Comrade Putin tipped his hand that he finds HCR's letters worthy of his attention. Don't we all. Pity he couldn't find someone with better command of English to plant a comment.
You respond with a smear and a sneer.
The IMF (with voting domination by NATO countries) extracted a pledge from Ukraine's President Poroshenko to re-conquer the Donbass (to help service the loan from back in 2014 with revenue from Donbass heavy industry). Zelensky swore to keep that pledge, and moved to invade, while NATO promised endless weapons as long as Ukraine delivered pounds of bloody flesh. And Vampire Liberals are all right with that.
The IMF is part of the United Nations, but it is based in Washington, DC. For decades the U.S. had an absolute dictator vote at the IMF, but that has changed somewhat.
While doing the bidding of the IMF (re-igniting the "frozen" civil war in the Donbass), Zelensky was also capitulating to the neo-Nazis and reneging on his campaign promise to bring peace to the Donbass.
Ukraine's far-right, thuggish police state has suppressed all the opposition political parties and seized their TV stations. Ukraine's Interior Ministry, in charge of the police, was run from 2014 to 2021 by neo-Nazi kingpin Arsen Avakov.
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/neo-nazis-far-right-ukraine/
And Vampire Liberals are all right with that. As the saying goes, "Before Hitler, there was Harvard":
https://twitter.com/john_schmeeckle/status/1599051947096449024?s=20
Your point is what, comrade? That the US, NATO, the IMF, and all of the rest of us Vampire Liberals should turn our backs on Ukraine and cede it to the gentle, enlightened ministrations of Vladimir Putin?
Nyet! The Ukrainian people have taken great pains, really enormous pains as a matter of fact, to indicate that they feel they would be better off throwing their lot in with the western Vampire Liberals. We vamlibs (worse than libtards?) should strongly support those goals. If we don't, then the Allied soldiers who fell at Anzio, Normandy, Guadalcanal, and Iwo Jima died for nothing.
Before Hitler there was Harvard. After Hitler there was Harvard. There will be Harvard after Putin. Are you seeing a pattern here?
I don't think that Vampire Liberals are really liberals. Maybe they're imposters from tiny corporatist Delaware, which is basically a suburb of Wall Street.
Ukraine has been turned into a zombie soldier by the IMF (demanding that Ukraine re-conquer the Donbass as a loan condition) and NATO (whose countries have voting domination at the IMF), which supplies endless weapons as long as Ukrains kill themselves in Russian meat-grinders.
Before Hitler there was Harvard and the rest of the genocidal Eugenics crowd:
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/may-26-2023/comment/16617244?utm_source=activity_item
Although coincidentally the Republicans walked out of conference on the same day as Trump delivered his screed on blowing up negotiations, should we take it they were actually responding to Trump's command? And if so, their success or lack of it in negotiations so far has nothing to do with their action; they are trying to appease the former president rather than solve a political crisis of their own making.
Putin's puppet manipulating the magates. It is war.
And three hours later, they came back in.
There's NO business like SHOW business....
But the joker laughs at us when we let stagecraft replace statecraft...
“Washington’s dysfunction” is just another version of the MSM “both sides” bs. It’s not Washington’s dysfunction of course, but the GQP, and still the MSM continues to carry water for the dyspatriots (they are not simply unpatriotic, but actively hostile to America, hence, dyspatriots).
You know what would be fun? Joe Biden not waiting until the last moment to announce that “the 14th Amendment makes Kevin the banty capon moot, and besides that, just eff the GQP,” then goes about his previously planned schedule, cue Chicken Little.
I agree John, Biden should cut them off at the knees now rather than later. The vast majority of Americans want the ceiling lifted cleanly as it has been before (or they aren't aware at all) and are getting sick of this hostage situation. Tell the little minority of dyspatriots (AKA traitors) that their little game is over, invoke the 14th and let everyone breathe a sigh of relief. Just step off Airforce 1 and go to the Oval and DO IT. Another byproduct will probably having McCarthy ejected from the speakership because he couldn't deliver.
The foolishness of attempting to blackmail the president is a clear photo that today's Republican't. And while the world is watching and waiting the magapublicans and their idiot leaders are forgetting; the American voters are watching too!
The voters are watching but also have proved to be distractable. We need to make Republicans wear their treachery. Direct and hold the focus. That's what successful social movements do. Yeah, politics is rough and tumble, but Republicans are now way out of bounds on so many things.
The danger to humanity is that the morally grotesque can, by way of persistence, can become perceived as normative, as slavery once was (four of our first five presidents held slaves, 12 in all). As Obama put it, "we tortured some folks", but isn't that a crime against humanity? We deliberately stole children from immigrant families, and many have still not been returned. Isn't that a crime against humanity? But, like the latest mass shooting, it becomes "normal", even if we hate it. Successful movements focus on an aspect of what is both horrible and "normal", and shake us awake.
“We need to make Republicans wear their treachery. Direct and hold the focus. That's what successful social movements do. Yeah, politics is rough and tumble, but Republicans are now way out of bounds on so many things.”
To do this we need to divest greedy, corporate monopolies from control of air waves and cyberspace. Yes Biden’s plan to invest in infrastructure to bring WiFi to remote/rural homes will put a dent in their inability to access information other than what is spewed by “dark money” and the Chris Licht’s in our world. However propaganda is fed into those homes continuously. I remember in the 90’s, thinking that Clear Channel was on a mission to hijack minds by buying up all the airwaves. Could have something to do with the mess we’re in? (The Brainwashing of My Dad documentary comes to mind)
We need to figure out an ethical, democratic way to slow the propaganda from maliciously driven sources.
Congrats, Heather on making The List. Frankly, I wish I were important enough to be on it myself.
Right up there with Stephen Colbert and Obama.
"It would also kill popular support for his return to a government that supports ordinary Americans rather than concentrating wealth at the top of the economy, as Republicans insist—contrary to economic studies—will expand the economy and benefit everyone. "
Aside from economic studies, where be these benefits? After more than 40 years of so called "Supply Side Economics" * are we in aggregate more financially secure and more secure in our employment? More secure and comfortable in retirement? Have an easier path to needed education and living-wage job opportunities? Can more easily afford a first home? Have the ranks of the "middle class" dramatically swelled ** ? Where's the beef? You have to wonder how we can succeed as a self-determining nation if the public cannot be bothered to connect the dots.
* Who supplies what in economics? Would you rather be marooned on a remote and deserted but habitable island with a carpenter, a farmer, a botanist, or a bank manager?
** Actually, since the "Reagan Revolution" the "middle class" has shrunk.
Excellent, JL!
Love your island closing, J L.
The MAGA cabal understands nothing about economics, democracy, good government or even politics. The only thing they care about is "owning the libs," even if that means destroying the country and the the rest of the world that relies on the U.S. to be a stable leader. Someone needs to send these spoiled brats to their room until they learn how to be better behaved.
And somewhere in the shadows Bannon is hunched over, eyes glazed, licking his lips and saying “hee… hee….hee…hee!!!!”.
I have no doubt that Bannon is involved along with nazi Steve Miller and Mike Flynn !! They are so corrupt and truly evil !!
Horrid vision. Lank unwashed hair, bristly face.